Broken Wings
by FebruaryAquarian
Summary: Severus discovers just what the Death Eaters are capable of when Lily is seen as a threat to Voldemort's rising power. When Severus shows up at Lily's doorstep, neither Severus nor Lily's lives will be the same.
1. Chapter 1: Prophecy

_A/N: __Simple idea I came up with awhile ago, but never did anything with since I was focusing on other things. I actually forgot about it and found it while looking for an old assignment. Will go back and forth between Lily's POV and Severus's POV (in third person). Despite the beginning, it's not a James/Lily story. Thanks for reading!_

_*I changed this story up a bit and decided I wanted to switch the first two chapters around so that the action is seen first. I'd appreciate suggestions for improvement if you have them. Any praise or critique you have would be thoughtful._

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><p><em><strong>Broken Wings<strong>_

**Chapter One: Prophecy**

Severus sat alone at the slightly scuffed, dark oak table in his parent's kitchen. The only sound came from a couple birds chirping outside and the ticking of the grandfather clock in the living room. His mother was upstairs in bed, complaining of feeling unwell again. His father was out somewhere. He pushed a copper coin across the table with his wand, watching it spin and collapse with a clink. Now that he was of age, no one cared that he used magic and he was bored. He and Lily had not made up from their fight. She did not seem interested in being friends again and he decided to forget it. A little part of him, a small part still hoped she would come to like him again though he knew that wasn't going to happen. She had other friends and plenty of other guys pining for her affection. She didn't need him. He had the Death Eaters now and he didn't need her either. At least that's what he told himself.

Still, when Lily was his friend, they would hang out in the summer holidays. It took away the solitude and boredom he felt otherwise. There was never anything to do at home and he much preferred school and the world he knew and belonged in. He never wanted to come back to this drab place again. Next summer he was only coming back long enough to pack his things and then he was getting as far away as he could from this house and these people. Here he was nothing, a nobody, a washed-up has-been, but with his Death Eater status he would not be a nobody anymore. He would prove himself worthy of something. He would get the power and get Black and Potter back once and for all for what they did. He would get Sirius back for trying to get him killed and get Potter back for all his bullying. They wouldn't pick on him anymore.

The front door handle turned and Severus let go of the coin and shoved his wand into his pocket. He heard someone stumble into the house. "Goddamn umbrella holder." The man mumbled.

Severus summoned a deck of cards and dealt them out, pretending to be playing a game as his father entered the room. He pretended to be unaware of someone in his home.

His father entered the kitchen. "Whatareyou doin' up?"

"It's only two-two in the afternoon."

Tobias got into the refrigerator and grumbled. "Where's the damn food?"

Severus shrugged. "At the store."

Tobias turned around, glaring daggers at Severus. Severus flipped a card over and looked his father in the eye.

"Smartass." His father mumbled with clear bitterness on his lips. His dad grumbled. "I'm going to bed."

Severus said nothing and watched his dad leave the kitchen and fumble up the stairs. His dad could complain all he wanted and yell and nag, but he couldn't do a damn thing to him any longer. Severus now had the power and control he wanted. He was going to meet Voldemort and get in the circle this afternoon. He could do magic even if he wasn't supposed to do them in front of muggles. His father knew about magic and that his son was a wizard so it wouldn't bce a surprise. He would get in trouble for doing anything to his father, but that didn't mean he couldn't frighten his father into submission with tales of his future powers and abilities with the Dark Lord. It would feel great to make his father cower like he had made him and his mother cower. Just imagining his father in the foetal position put a sly grin on his face. He didn't want to kill the man, just let him have his comeuppance for once.

A loud rapping at the door put a sudden halt to his thoughts of revenge. Severus got up from the table and went to answer the door.

"Uh, Avery-what are-"

Avery grinned. "The Dark Lord wants us early. My dad is taking us up to the manor."

"Right now?"

"Yeah, come on."

Severus was not expecting to go until tonight. "Okay, let me just let my folks now I'm leaving." He turned and went to the stairs. "I'm going out with some friends! We'll be back tonight! I don't know the time!"

The only sound back was a slight growl of his father. The cuckoo clock in the kitchen made a noise. Severus turned back to Avery. "I should change into some old robes."

"We don't have time. Come on."

Severus really didn't want to show up in his trousers, shirt and jacket, but Avery was waving him to hurry impatiently. "Fine." He was a bit uneasy at the thought of showing up in muggle attire and being called out. "I hope I won't get in trouble for looking like this."

"You're a half-blood, not a mudblood. The latter would find you in trouble." Avery spoke the term mudblood with great disdain. Severus took Avery's arm and they apparated to a large manor.

Severus had been excited to see what a Death Eater meeting would entail and was thrilled at what awaited him when he arrived into the room with others who were already branded Death Eaters. He thought he would get his reward and the life he always wanted. In one year, he would get the sort of power and influence he always dreamed of having in his grasp.

However, at the large manor, in the meeting with Voldemort, the ideas he had before were crushed before him. At first, it seemed well as a couple new people took the mark. Then, Severus watched as Voldemort spoke to a few people who were meant to be loyal Death Eaters.

"So, you all have no new information on who this girl could be?"

A couple middle-aged men shook their heads.

"No." One spoke.

"And you, you disobeyed my orders." His snake-like eyes pierced a man who looked to be in his mid-20s.

"We tried, my Lord, but he refused to talk. We-"

"I tire of your excuses." Severus watched as Voldemort pulled out a wand. "Crucio!" He shouted.

Severus watched as the group of men fell to the ground one by one, fighting off what seemed to horrendous pain. Then came the taunts as a man with a ghastly complexion arrived.

"Here stands a mudblood. This mudblood is a former student of Hogwarts. He claims he does not know anything about a girl a year younger than him who matches the description I've given. I'm going to ask for the last time. My patience is wearing thin. Give me the name of any girl who matches the description."

"I-I don't know." The man's eyes were wide and thin and his lip trembled with fear. "I-there's a couple girls. One was a Ravenclaw and one was in Gryffindor. I don't remember their names though."

"You don't remember their names?"

"I-I think one was Lila or something and the other was something with an M. Monica or something. I think that was it. Monica."

"Lila and Monica? They match the descriptions I gave you?"

"They have the same hair you mention, flaming and red."

Severus turned at that, paying closer attention. _"Red hair? Gryffindor? Lila?"_ He swallowed hard. _"Don't tell me he means Lily? Not Lily."_

Severus heard jeers from Mulciber and Travers, but was unsure if he should say anything since he was not a Death Eater yet.

"Thank you." The man looked relieved until Voldemort raised his wand. "You have given me all I need for now. Avada Kedavra." Right before his eyes, the poor man was murdered. Severus cringed a little. He had never seen someone murdered before. The man laid on the ground with his eyes open. Severus had to look away.

"That is what mudbloods and muggles deserve. Unfit to live. Cowards who cannot defy their own mortality."

Several people snickered.

"_You can get through this. This is what you want. Muggles are worthless. Look at your dad and neighbours. You will have power and influence-everything you want. It didn't mean Lily. It's not Lily he wants. Why would he want anything to do with her anyway?"_ That was when Voldemort turned his attention to the young recruits like Severus.

"In part of joining, you must cut your ties with mudbloods and muggles if you have any." He spoke in a icy tone and his cold eyes bore into them. "Do any of you know of any mudbloods in your year that were born in the winter?"

"Severus was once friends with a mudblood." Travers exclaimed, clearly desperate to keep the attention away from him as one of the youngest people in the room. "I think she was born in January too."

Severus held back any fear and attempted to remain emotionless. Before he could defend himself, he saw Voldemort's snake like eyes glaring at him. He gulped.

"Look at me, Severus."

Remaining as stoic as he possibly could in the situation, ignoring the eerie, deafening silence in the crowd and piercing glares of everyone in the room, he turned to look at Voldemort. He discovered quickly that this was a mistake. Severus found himself gliding through a variety of old memories, some he did not remember until now. He was four or five and having another kid shove an ice cream cone in his face and his mother dragging him out of the shop quickly. When he was six and his father was screaming at his mother while he cowered in a corner. When he was nine and met Lily, when he was ten and hiding under the covers with Lily like it was a tent while a storm raged outside during one of their playdates, when he was eleven and going to Hogworts, when he was thirteen and having a snowball fight with Lily on the school grounds, when he was fifteen and arguing with her, calling a mudblood at sixteen and admitting to himself that Lily did not like him and he would just have to forget about her. Several more memories came to the surface. Severus wanted to yell at the man to get out of his head, but he did not do so for fear of what might happen.

Severus finally, in desperation, unhappy about the memories he was seeing, some of which were his dreams and private thoughts, threw up a shield charm. He hit the ground with a thud, taking the chair with him. He was breathing hard and heard shouts, laughter and gasps throughout the room. His head spun and he closed his eyes for a moment. When he reopened them, he saw some of his housemates staring at him in shock. He picked himself up, put up the chair and sat back down calmly, ignoring the eyes that glared into him.

"The red-headed girl you have feelings for in those memories is a mudblood?" Voldemort mocked.

Severus said nothing. He did not get the chance.

"What is the name of this filthy mudblood that a promising future has his eye on?

Severus raised an eyebrow for a second and then shruggedc. "She's nobody."

"It is obvious you like her. Even a dream where you slept with her, quite intensly."

"I'd like to see that." Someone said. "Where did you screw her in your dreams?"

Severus felt his cheeks burn. That was an older dream, back when he was sixteen and they were still friends. He was over Lily. A few people snickered while other's faces were wrought with disgust.

"I do not like her anymore." Severus spat out without thinking.

"You are lying to me?"

Severus looked at Voldemort, avoiding his eyes for fear of having his mind tapped into again. "We aren't friends anymore. We have not spoken in more than a year."

"You still think about her. You were thinking about her a moment ago."

Severus wanted to say _"That's because you brought her up by invading my mind, idiot."_ but he didn't dare.

"You always liked her. When she broke the friendship, you were depressed and hardly ate or did anything for the rest of the school year." Avery snickered.

"Depressed over a mudblood? And you call yourself a future Death Eater?" Another man scoffed.

"Does it matter what happened? We aren't friends and I-I chose" He paused. "Something different." Severus turned to glare at Avery. He was going to get Severus killed if he did not watch his mouth. "Thanks a lot." He mumbled.

"What made you stop being friends? If you are still attached to a silly girl who is of no worth-"

"We decided to go our separate ways, that's all. We have different beliefs and views."

"You put her on a pedestal already, speaking of her like a human." A crazy haired woman with cold, wild eyes spoke up. "Filth, worthless, deserve to die, they do!"

Severus became slightly unnerved and clinched his fist into a ball in anger. He calmed himself back down quickly. He had to stay calm. It was not Lily they were talking about killing so much as mudbloods in general. It also unnerved him to realize that he had forgotten about some of those memories of them together. He realized he missed her a little now that he remembered them.

"What do you think about muggles, Severus?"

Severus eyed him suspiciously. "Not very highly having lived among them."

"So, you do not care about mudbloods?"

"No."

"The red haired one is your fancy though. Do you care about her? Love her?" Voldemort asked in a mocking tone. The words care and love got sneers and chuckles and scoffs toward him.

"I do not love her." He spoke, not looking at the Dark Lord. "We aren't even friends anymore."

"What is her name?"

"Who?"

"The girl you want to screw, Snape." Wilkes spoke up.

Severus turned and looked daggers at Wilkes. "I don't want to screw her."

Wilkes paid Severus no mind. "Lily Evans."

Severus froze at that. He was not sure if he wanted anyone to know about Lily. It was bad enough for the Dark Lord to see those memories and dreams and to know he was friends with a mudblood, but to say her name was pushing it. She didn't need involved in this. If Travers had just shut his trap, they would not know the difference about his past relationship to a muggleborn.

"And what is the birthday of Lily Evans? What day in January?"

Severus choked, his nerves rattled as fear gripped him. What was with all the questions about his ex-friend?

"End of January." Avery said. "Snape always used to get her something."

"He always liked her. He still does though he denies it. You can tell by the look in his eyes each time he sees the mudblood." Mulciber said with a sneer.

He suddenly got cackles as they mocked him. He was over Lily. They weren't friends anymore so none of this should matter. A couple older Death Eaters began to sing a song about him and Lily in mockery that made him want to hex them all. Stupid arses, the lot of them. Yet, he still desperately wanted to be one.

"Barty." Voldemort suddenly said. "Come to me for a chat." The subject was now turned on someone else and Severus was relieved. No one said a word about it besides a few offensive gestures about him and Lily for the rest of the time there so Severus assumed it was over.

Severus left about an hour later. As he walked down the stone walk to the gates of the manor, he found himself on the ground, withering in pain and heard someone laughing. The pains racked his whole body while his insides wrung and burned with agony. It suddenly stopped as he reached for his wand.

"Snape?" Severus lifted his head and turned to see who was talking to him and who had knocked him down. "The recruit in love with a filthy mudblood, imagining playful, passionate sex with her, huh?"

Severus opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted.

A young man who was a few years older than Severus was the one who was speaking. "I don't think we've met. Wilbur Papino. Severus, is it?"

"Yes."

"I was thinking, since you know where that fancy of yours, Lily is it?" Severus didn't answer. "Since you know where she lives I was considering us all going and giving her a proper greeting ourselves."

Papino grinned and Severus knew that the greeting would be anything but proper. He had a very bad feeling about this, a very bad feeling. He picked himself up off the ground and turned to Papino in surprise. "Greeting?"

"We can do great things, Severus. We just need to deal with that mudblood you fancy.

Severus raised an eyebrow. "You want to hurt her? Why? She's not important to you."

"No. I don't want to just hurt her." Severus started to relax. "I want to kill her."

"Kill her?" Severus felt a shock wave through his body. "Why?"

"I have heard from the Dark Lord. You heard of that prophecy that the seer made? Lenora, I think was her name? After seeing the mudblood in your thoughts, and both you and her were born in 1960, the Dark Lord thinks your fancy is the one the prophecy refers to. Girl of flaming hair? Lily Evans has red hair. Born of muggles in 60? She's a mudblood. Her parents are muggles. As the first month began to die? Lily Evans was born at the very end of January."

Severus clinched his fists. "You're wrong? She's not-she's not who they mean."

"Because you don't want her to the one. In her twentieth year, she shall birth a boy when the seventh month dies. He shall have powers the Dark Lord knows not. She's the one. Born to those who will defy the Dark Lord many times."

"It's not her. It's not her, you hear me!" Severus slowly reached for his wand in his trouser's pocket

"Why? Because you like her and don't want her to be?" He narrowed his wild eyes. "It doesn't work that way, Snape."

"You won't touch her!" Severus snapped, his blood boiling.

"Won't I?" Papino grabbed Severus's shirt. "You coming in here to my manor dressed in filthy muggle rags. I let someone who imagines hot sex with a mudblood because he loves her in my home. You can't just join up that easy. I have more power than you think. One bad word and you'll never see what you could have with us. You will lose everything. That's a promise."

"I don't love her now let me go." Severus glared daggers at the young man holding onto him.

"You want to be a part of us? You want to join the cause?"

"Yes."

"Then you do what you need to do." Papino glared at him with a coldness that stung him.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Prove it. Prove you don't really care about her. She's the one, Snape. She's the only one it could be. How many red-haired mudbloods born at the end of January in 1960 are there? Just her."

"I don't answer to you." He snapped back.

"You want to prove yourself to the Dark Lord? You go and do whatever you want with that mudblood and bring back evidence of your task. I will happily give him a word. You fuck this up and I will bring you down-understand, Snape?"

"Evidence?"

"Her head."

Severus's head spun in a thousand different directions, but he knew one thing: Papino would not lay a finger on Lily, ever. Not if he could help it. "Her head?" He gulped hard. "You're joking."

"Do I look like I am joking? That will get you everything."

Severus felt like he had been punched in the gut hard. "No. No-I-you're crazy! If the Dark Lord wants to take someone down, then he can do it. I won't do anything. It's not her. It's not."

"Ooh. You do like her."

"Shut up. I didn't say that."

"She's just a filthy mudblood. Make use of her. If you don't actually like her, what does it matter? If you don't-we will. I'm sure some of the others who seek to join would love the task. Destroying the girl who will give birth to a baby who'll destroy us-destroy our cause will be the best way to get the Dark Lord to accept you for the mark."

Before Severus could speak, he found himself on the ground again, writhing in pain. His stomach acid bubbled inside. He choked back the rising bile, dizziness suddenly plaguing him.

"She isn't anybody. You can't tell me there isn't another person who could be the one-the one meant in the prophecy. How do you know it's not a joke? The prophecy? It sounds ridiculous." He grabbed his trousers at the thigh to stop his legs and fingers from trembling as he attempted to get up only to find himself struck in the back by a hex and bound in robes.

"She's the only one and you know it!" Papino snapped. "You said it yourself. She's not anybody."

"But why not, Severus? She is the girl you desire to bang more than any of us." Another boy spoke. "Some of your pals told us about her. Travers there told me that your Lily was nothing but a little whore-"

"Shut up!" Severus yelled, not willing to listen to them talk about her that way anymore as thrashing around wildly and tried to reach his wand. Bound as he was with the ropes made it impossible to reach. He wanted his wand terribly and he wanted to slash their faces with his curse, to make them pay for even thinking such things about her.

Wilbur pulled the robes tighter on Severus and shot a curse at him that burned his arm. "Do you wish to join us in the quest for greatness and power?"

"Yes." He said. "But-"

"Then prove your ties have been cut. Use her for your purpose and you will be a Death Eater-no qualms there. Destroy her and you win with us and especially with the Dark Lord."

_Use her for his purpose? _No, he couldn't do it. Lily had nothing to do with this. "I won't do it." He said, his confidence suddenly increased outwardly while his empty stomach churned and his body quaked internally. Severus noticed the crowd of seven had quieted and were watching them. His mind swirled with confusion, but he knew he could not do what he always wanted to do at that point. He could not harm her or let them harm her. He was not someone's slave to do as they wished just because they said so and especially not something like that. Severus would not allow it. Not his old friend, not Lily, but refusing or not allowing them to hurt her would be end of him as a Death Eater.

"You won't?" One of the older men spoke.

"I won't hurt her. You won't hurt her. I won't let you."

"You won't let us?" Papino asked in aggravated surprise. "Are you defending the mudblood, Severus? You are telling us she is someone at our level?" An older young man with wild eyes spoke up. "You make me sick."

"Someone else will have to do the task for you since you are too weak to do it yourself."

Severus stopped himself from hyperventilating. "Why her? Why not someone else? She can't be the one." He blurted out and instantly regretted it.

"MacNair can do the task, can't you? He's good at killin things."

MacNair got excited and was quick to agree. "I will show my worth. I can do all the unforgivables. I have practiced. I will prove my worth to the Dark Lord."

"Get the blood traitor off of our manor. Torture him, maim him and leave him for dead. That will show him." A tall, gangly young man with wild eyes spoke. He looked a couple years younger than Wilbur, but a lot like him. Severus assumed it was his brother.

He felt himself suddenly writhing in pain once again. He cringed, trying not to cry out. He was not going to act like this bothered him. He attempted to stand up. His whole body shook in pain. Severus found himself on the ground again. He bit back a yelp as his insides burned with agony and his skin outside burned as if someone had set him on fire along with stabbing him with a knife in several places. After what seemed like an eternity, though it was likely only a couple minutes, the pains stopped. He didn't know what all he had been hit with, but it was more than one curse.

"Let's go. We have a mudblood to find." Wilbur Papino spoke. He turned to Severus. "You made this choice. Her blood is in your hands. You were the one who fell for her."

"I didn't-do-anything. Leave her-leave her-alone." He said, barely able to talk through the agonizing pain. He was shaking terribly.

He found himself withering in pain once. It happened, he thought, twice. He could hardly move. A couple other curses were fired at him. His face and body stung and burned from the boils and stings. He felt his chest, legs and back being slashed by his own curse.

Severus felt a heavy shoe kick his chest hard, making him gasp for air. "Death Eater future fancies the mudblood. You lost your chance with her. We will get the power you couldn't. Coward." Papino cackled.

Severus's blood boiled over. The only person who would die would be them. He'd make sure of that.

"She does not like you. She fancies the blood traitor James Potter. She'd never want a loser like you." A young man two years above Severus in school spoke. "Now Potter won't have her either."

"Pathetic coward you are. You're a worthless piece of rubbish." Wilbur said.

"Thinking you can actually get one of the popular Gryffindor girls to fall for you. Ever hear of shampoo, Snape? Or washing your clothes?" The other young man spoke again.

All the emotion of the day burst in him and hit the pit of his stomach. "Ever hear of a-"

Before he could finish, several curses struck him at once, causing him to cry out in pain.

Severus continued to try wandless magic to get his wand, but it was not working. He was kicked in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. The horrific pain of the crucios and the kick caused him to curl pitifully in the foetal position to avoid another blow.

"This is what happens when you defy us and the Dark Lord." The older man with wild eyes spoke and turned. "You and the mudblood will be in the same position soon. Dead." The ropes and totalus curse were lifted.

Severus heard them talking about what they would do with his and Lily's bodies as they walked away. If he didn't get out of here and wasn't dead by the time they came back out from the manor, he would not live to see the sun set.

Though he was in horrendous pain, but he had to get to Lily. He had to warn her that they were after her and it was his fault. Maybe he should have agreed and pretended he would do the task?

_"No, because agreeing and not doing it would be worse, Severus_." He thought to himself. He did the right thing and he knew it deep down, but it was his own fault. Maybe if he had listened to her about the Death Eaters she never would have been targeted. No, she would have been. They said it already, she was just a worthless mudblood to them, someone to be rid of and prove their worth to Voldemort. They did not even consider her human. She would have eventually been targeted and he knew it.

He kept trying the wandless magic and reaching into his robes for his wand. In a fit of desperation, the wand suddenly came into his hand. He had no time to be glad about his first achievement of wandless magic though. He had to get to Lily. Severus gathered up as much strength as he could muster and apparated.

Severus found himself staring at thick grass. There was a loud rumble of thunder and a bright flash of light overhead. Something wet hit his face and he realized it was starting to rain. Breathing hurt and he knew that trying to move would be nothing short of misery.

_"No_,_ get up, you are not a coward, go warn Lily._" He told himself. If he hadn't been alone when he apparated to the park in Cokeworth, he would have worried about being followed. He knew that while his Slytherin pals knew where he resided on summer breaks, they did not know about Lily's place of residence. He hoped it stayed that way.

The world spun around as he got up. He staggered to the swings and clutched the pole.

"_Don't give up. You are almost there. Keep going. You'll make it. They don't know where she lives."_ He forced himself to continue and dragged himself to Lily's home. Tears fell down his face from the pain as he tried to walk. He brushed them off. He knew Lily would probably be shocked to see him and even more shocked to see his condition. He knew he must look like ghastly after all the physical torment of the day.

Every step was torture. Ripples of stabbing, pounding, burning, stinging and twisting pains hit his body with every move he made, but he was determined. He knew he could not apparate because he was in no condition to do so. He clutched his wand tightly anyway, in case the group discovered where he was or where Lily lived and showed up at any moment. If they attacked Lily, he would use all his strength left to fight back.

He feared losing consciousness. The storm raged on, soaking him to the bone, causing his clothes to stick to his skin. This made the cursed marks burn with pain. He winced with every slight movement. Nausea hit him in waves. He retched once, but nothing was in his stomach. He did not stop though. He had to get to her and warn her that they were coming and it was once again his fault. He would not let them touch her. He would not allow it. He had caused enough trouble with her over this. He did not have any chance of becoming a Death Eater now. It was too late. All he could do now was try and protect her.

He made it to her door and began pounding, begging, pleading she was home.

"_Please?_" He thought. "_Please don't be gone. You have to know-have to hid-run." _

Just as he started to think no one was there, he saw the doorknob turn slowly. He came face to face with Lily. He expected her to be mad-maybe even yell at him. Instead, her face was wrought with confusion, surprise and horror.

"Severus? What?" He saw her pause. "What happened to you?"

"Lily" he stammered out. "Death eaters looking for you." Speaking was a nightmare. The world spun. He saw two of her and grabbed the doorway to steady himself. "Hide. You need to hide. Want to hurt you. Can't do it-won't let them-do it-to you. Hurt-torture-crucio-want to kill you. Looking for you now. Unforgivables. All of them on you." He saw stars, unable to finish. His world went black and he collapsed onto her floor. She realized too late the he had lost consciousness and was unable to stop his fall. He landed on her rug, bleeding profusely.


	2. Chapter 2: Summer

_Thanks to **Harrylee94, Flame55, TheAngelofIego** and **IonicAmagam** for the reviews for Chapter One. _

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><p><em><strong>Broken Wings<strong>_

**Chapter Two: Summer**

Lily watched the landscape roll by outside of the train window. Her attention was pulled away from the rolling hills outside when the door opened to her cabin.

"Hey, Lily." James said with a smile.

She gave him a smile back. He came into the cabin and sat beside her.

"How are you?"

"Great."

Mary and another girl in the cabin got up, giggling.

"We will leave you two alone." Mary said.

Lily glared at them half-heartedly. She watched them leave.

"Your trip going okay?" James asked.

"Fine. As always. Yours?" Her tongue felt dry. She did not know why she liked him so much now. She did not like much before. In fact, she used to think he was jerk. Something had changed though. He was becoming nicer and had not been hexing random students anymore. He was showing more admirable qualities to her and well, she felt herself feeling drawn to him more and more.

"Great."

Lily was not sure what to say.

"I know you don't really like me much and so, I've been trying to leave you alone, but-"

"Who said I didn't like you?"

James smiled. "I was wondering if, well, if you and I could maybe, hang out sometime, alone."

Lily felt her heart flutter in her chest. "You mean, like a date?"

"Or as friends, if you want. I won't pressure you into dating me anymore."

"I'll think about it and give you an answer this summer. I need to talk to my mum first, if it's a date, that is."

"Okay." He smiled very softly, but Lily could see his eyes gleaming with happiness. " Write to me with an answer this summer?"

"I will." She paused. "Honest. After I get settled in and talk to my mum."

James touched her shoulder and she smiled. He let go and got up. "Well, I will see you later, Lily."

She watched him leave. Mary and the other girl came back in. "So, what did he say?"

"He asked me out."

She squealed in excitement. "And?"

"I said I would have to talk to my mum first. I promised I would tell her before I gave an answer."

The other girl spoke up. "So you and James Potter are a couple. It's about bloody time!"

Lily couldn't help but grin. It was great. She had her first real boyfriend, almost. Maybe now she would get her first kiss and all that stuff. She was ready to have a boyfriend, ready to get her life moving in that direction. With a war going on and all that, the more protection she had, the better. Everyone wanted them together anyway so why not go for it. Everyone said they were perfect for each other. Maybe they were right. She would find out soon.

0o0o0o

_A week later_

Lily flipped a page of the book she was reading, letting her mind drift into thoughts about James Potter. He had been much nicer to her lately and so far, he was the only boy interested in her. Well, some others were interested, but they were only attracted to her and were not interested in dating, only one thing. James was certainly the most blunt about his attraction to her. He asked her out in a nicer way before she came home. Normally, he just begged her for a date. She had said she would think about it and she had. She was thinking about telling him yes and was considering writing to him. Her mum said it was fine so all she had to do was give him the okay and she would have her first boyfriend.

She sighed as she thought about having a boyfriend. James was one of more popular boys at school. She used to not like him and in some ways she still hated the way he used to treat others. This unfortunately brought her mind to Severus. She was still mad at him. Not for calling her a mudblood, though she still could not believe he called her that, but for not listening to her about the Death Eaters. She was mad he chose that path. It was upsetting to think one of her former friends could become a part of something like that, something that wanted her dead. They were not friends anymore and as long as he chose the Death Eater way, she was not going to be friends with him again. The friendship had ended more than a year ago and neither had tried to make amends since their fight after he called her a mudblood. Civil, cordial in classes if they had to speak to each other, but that was it. His decision to be one of them was dangerous and stupid, especially since she knew he was a very intelligent person and could be something better than a Death Eater, but he chose that way and there was nothing she could do about it. She didn't want to think about Severus though so she tried to push her thoughts away from him.

A loud rumble of thunder shook the window and stopped her ponderings. Lily closed her bookd and got off her bed. She walked over to the window and looked out at the dark clouds. It was about to pour the rain. Lightning lit up the sky and a clap of thunder rang out so loud, her window shook. Raindrops began to fall outside. Just then, she heard a shriek. It was Petunia. Lily ran out of her room to her sister's bedroom across the hall. "What's the matter?"

"I wasn't talking to you!" She snapped.

Lily ignored her sister's attitude. "I heard you scream. What's wrong?"

"Nothing except that its raining! I am supposed to pick up my wedding dress in an hour!"

The raindrops were growing thicker outside and splashed heavily against the windowpane. "They will put a plastic bag over it so it won't get wet."

"Why don't you in your freakish ways make the storm stop?" Petunia mocked.

Lily narrowed her eyes and huffed in aggravation. "I can't control the weather, Petunia."

"Figures." Petunia turned to her younger sister and folded her arms. "The only reason you are in this wedding or even allowed to come is because Mum is making me."

"I know, you've made me well aware of that every day for the past week since I've been home. The feeling is mutual considering how awful you've been to me for the past six years."

Petunia glared at Lily. Lily glared back. "You should have never gone to that freak school!"

"You are just jealous and I wish you would get over it. I can't change what I am and I can't change the fact that you are not a witch too. It would have been great, but I can't do anything about it. It is what it is and I wish you would stop it."

"Get out of my room."

"Fine." She started to leave. The silence between them was only broken by the pounding of rain overhead on their roof and slamming into the windows.

"One more week and I will be a married woman. I will be Mrs. Petunia Dursley and I will be living in my apartment with my husband. You will be back at your freak school in seven weeks and probably marry another freak eventually."

"What do I care? I don't like Vernon. I think he is an arrogant jerk."

"He is a normal person unlike your friends. He has a good job too. What sorts of jobs can you get with your stupid education at that freak school?"

"I would like to be an auror."

"A what?"

"Auror. Like a police officer or bounty hunter. They find criminals who are wizards and witches."

"Sounds like a worthless job to me."

"It takes three years of training after you graduate and you have to have high marks to get in."

Petunia scoffed. "I could care less what you end up doing to waste your life. I am getting the better end of the deal. I will get to live a happy, ordinary life that you never will have because you have a worthless education."

Lily glowered at her sister and folded her arms across her chest. "You know, I would be happy for you if you would ever show some happiness for me."

They heard a car horn beep outside. "That's my maid-of-honor. We are going out for ice cream and getting my gown. Mum already knows what I am doing."

Petunia purposely ran into Lily, knocked her crossed arms and caused her stumble a little. Lily looked daggers at her sister as Petunia gave an irate glare at Lily.

"Stay out of my room, freak." Petunia shut the door and headed down the stairs. Lily heard the front door open and close. The car rolled out of the driveway. Lily sighed. She was alone in the house. The lights flickered once and went off, leaving her in the dark hallway. She went back to her room, choking back the tears that threatened to fall. She hated her sister's behaviour. Why did she act like this?

Lily sat on her bed. The room was dark despite the fact that it was only three in the afternoon. She laid down. James Potter came to her thoughts. Marrying a pure blooded wizard would mean that their children would be half-bloods. That would be a plus. Not that she would end up marrying James, but if she did, and they had any children, her children would have it better than her. No mudblood crap. Regardless of marriage, she could not think of one negative reason to go out with James. There were no cons, really. Her mum seemed fine with it, with her being with a wizard, but had a long talk with her about the birds and the bees again to her dismay. She had made her decision. She got up and found some parchment and her quill. Lily snatched a book from the nightstand to write on and flopped on her stomach on her bed and began to pen a note to James Potter.

_James, _

_You asked me to write you over the summer. I have thought about your question and I spoke to my mum. My answer is ~_

She smudged her paper at the sound of pounding on the front door. She set her quill down. Maybe her mum needed help. She jumped up and headed to the stairs. The pounding grew heavier as she approached the steps. She stopped near the landing. The beating was continuous, almost nervous as if they needed to get in the house.

Was it a robber? No, they wouldn't beat like that. _Then who?_ She wondered. The pounding sounded too heavy to be Petunia or her mother. She wondered if she should hide. Maybe it was a Death Eater who found out a muggleborn lived here? Something told her to open it though. She listened to that voice and mustered up all her courage with her wand in her hand, ready to strike as she slowly twisted the doorknob. Lily thrust the door open with her wand out.

Lily gasped in horror at the sight before her. "Severus? What-" She choked, trying to think of something to say at the sight of her former friend. "What happened to you?"


	3. Chapter 3: Saving Sev

_Thanks to **Flame55, TheAngelofIego, Gyoro and Ururun, Zireael07, Pichigaru, Sevlily4ever, VerySmallProphet **and** Moonlit Skye** for the reviews._

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><p><em><strong>Broken Wings<strong>_

**Chapter Three: Saving Severus**

Lily was confused by his appearance at her door, but was far more horrified at the sight of his condition. The right side of his face had a gash that was dripping blood. The rain caused it to smear over his face. He was soaked and chilled, daring to come to her house in the middle of a rare thunderstorm. He was dripping rain water all over her foyer from his damp clothing and hair. His face was peakish and green, like he might become ill and his face was far more pale than she remembered it being. His charcoal eyes were wide with horror, as if he had been told someone he loved was going to die or was dying or deceased already. As he started to speak, she realized that terror-striken look was over her and confused her since they were not friends any longer and he wanted people like her gone, didn't he? After all, he called her a mudblood and wanted to join Voldemort.

She mentally kicked herself for thinking so poor of him. Of course he would care if they wanted to harm her just like he claimed he didn't mean to call her a mudblood, but called everyone else of her birth a mudblood.

"_You were always his exception for whatever reason. Guess because you were friends, but we aren't anymore." _She thought to herself.

Lily tried to process his broken and strained speech. It was clearly painful for him to speak, but he was determined anyway. What he was saying both confused and surprised her. He was telling her Death Eaters wanted to find her, but why on earth would they target her specifically? He said something about harming her and the crucio and them wanting to kill her. Why would they want that? Besides the fact that she was a mudblood, what reason would the Death Eaters want with her? She was not anyone special and the idea that they were targeting her made her scratch her head.

Severus trembled so hard that he shook her doorframe as he held onto it with a death grip. It almost seemed like he was afraid to let go of it. She watched the hand that gripped the frame suddenly go limp. His eyes shut and she thought he was going to be sick as he lunged forward. She winced as she prepared to see him vomit. As he started to fall to the floor at a rapid speed, she realized he had lost consciousness . She gasped and instinctively reached down to break his fall, but was not fast enough. He hit the ground with a thud that made her cringe slightly. She could see him moving a little, twitching almost. He was still alive, thankfully. His head hadn't hit anything as he landed mostly face down. Not that landing face down was a good thing, but Lily thought it was better than him smacking his head and getting a bad concussion.

Lily put her hand to her forehead and shut her eyes for a second as she thought of what to do now.

"_Had they done this to him? No, it was not a question. They must have done this to him." _

She had warned him not to listen to them. If he has just listened to her he wouldn't be lying on her floor injured. She had to help him, but she didn't know what curses had been done to undo them.

"_Is he dying? What if was the imperious? No, this is Severus. He's not behaving odd in any way and didn't seem to be forced. The Death Eaters would not warn; they would just attack, Lily_." She thought.

"Dammit, they did this to you, didn't they? Did they do this because of me?" She asked out loud, thinking. "Of course they did. You just said they were after me." She scoffed. "rI'm talking like you can hear me and answer when you're not even conscious." She ran her hand over her hair at the top of her head and huffed ." Dammit!"

Maybe he had tried to stop them from going after her? It made sense as to why he was so badly injured and why he was here at her doorstep, warning her of their plans. But why would he care about foiling such a plan and why her anyway? She wasn't even finished with school. How did the Death Eaters know where she lived? Did Severus tell them? No, that didn't make any sense. He said they were looking for her, not that they knew where she was, but why would he come here to warn her of their plans? Even if she was an exception, why would he even bother?

She heard a voice in her head speak-her conscious she supposed. _"What if you found out that some of your friends wanted to harm Severus? What if they said they wanted to torture him, abuse him and kill him? Would you try and stop it even after he called you that word? Even though you aren't friends? Wouldn't you do the same?" _She knew the answer. She would have because to not do so wouldn't be unfathomable.

"_My friends wouldn't do that to him though. They wouldn't consider harming him." _She justified to herself.

The voice in her head spoke again. "_Everything and everyone isn't always like they seem on the surface." _That was what her grandfather used to say to her and Petunia, though she had no idea why that thought came to her mind.

Lily looked down at Severus. He was staining their rug with blood and water from his hair and clothes. The open front door was letting in the rain from the storm. She needed to get him inside completely so she could close the door and figure out what to do next.

Lily kneeled down and grabbed him from under his arms. It took a couple tries, but she managed to finally move him little by little. He was thin, but he still weighed more than she did so it wasn't easy. He was trembling violently under her arms. With each move, he let out a small cringe of pain even though he was unconscious. She winced each time he let out the moan or twitched as if it hurt physically.

"_Damn you, Severus!"_ She thought."_ Always get in over your head, don't you?" _

She finally managed to get his limp body completely inside the house. She shoved his feet inside and closed and locked the door back. Of course, their simple muggle locks wouldn't be a match for the Death Eaters or any wizard or witch, but at least they weren't exposing their presence if the Death Eaters managed to discover her location. With the door closed, the house looked like any other in the neighbourhood.

Lily let out a deep breath and looked back over at Severus. "Why didn't you just move him with your wand instead of dragging him?" Again, she mentally kicked herself for forgetting to use magic to help.

He moaned a little. She kneeled back down to him and moved his head slightly. He was out cold. He was trembling so hard, she was a little worried he might be having a seizure. However, nothing else seemed to indicate a seizure, so she knew it had to be all the curses and hexes on him. He let out occasion cringes of pain. His breathing was laboured as if it hurt to breathe and his teeth chattered as he shook and she wasn't sure if it was just the curses or if he was cold from being so wet.

She didn't know what to do except find out where he was injured so she could help him and then get some warm blankets until he regained consciousness. He was trying to help her, wasn't he? He may be a Death Eater wannabe, but they were best friends for a long time and it was the least she could do right now. It did not matter that they had hardly spoken in over a year. He was still once her best friend and he needed her help right now.

In order to find out some of his injuries, she would have to unclothe him and that was not something she wanted to do. He would be horrified if he saw her undressing him. She would be horrified in the opposite situation. Still, she knew she needed to help him and she would not need to completely undress him to see his injuries anyway. Just a little look at his torso, back, arms and legs would be enough.

She grabbed at his jacket and slowly began to take it off. He winced slightly as she did. Clearly, his arm was hurt. The jacket was hard to remove. It was stuck in places. When she removed it from the stuck spots, it sounded like something was wet and she knew rain did not cause clothes to get stuck to someone's body as if it were tape. She grimaced and looked down. In horror, she realized it was blood. The soggy overcoat had been stuck to him over his injuries. Lily looked away for a moment and took a deep breath before continuing to remove the light jacket.

Lily suddenly pondered something curious. If he had just come from contact with the Death Eaters, why wasn't he wearing robes? Certainly they would not have liked seeing Severus in muggle street clothes. She wondered if he had been caught off-guard and did not have a chance to change or if he had been home when he was attacked and therefore was not in his robes at the time. Regardless, she needed to contemplate that another time. Right now, she needed to finish removing his jacket.

As she lifted him slightly to remove the jacket off of his arms, she saw his shirt had been ripped up and his undershirt was slashed up as well. His entire chest, sides, back and torso were cut up. He looked like he had been lashed up with...his own spell. She was certain it was his signature one-the sectumsempra. This was in addition to some other spells as well. It was definitely not just his sever spell that had torn him up. She had no idea what caused some of the injuries on this body.

"God, Severus, I told you that spell was cruel. They lashed you up quite well."

"Damn, you, Severus Snape! You never listen. If you had listened to me, you wouldn't be in this position."

She knew her anger was unimportant right now, but she could not help it. Why did she care at all? He screwed up. It was his fault, not hers. Yet, she couldn't help it. If he had just listened to her about Voldemort, he wouldn't be in this position right now.

Lily worked slowly on the shirt and undershirt, yanking them up a little more forcefully than necessary. As she removed them, they made an even worse sound. It sounded like she was peeling off a Band-Aid that was stuck, except it was mixed with the sound of something wet, like you would peel a banana. It made her cringe more than once. She suddenly lost her appetite. She was planning on starting supper soon, but this changed her mind.

When she had undressed him, she noticed how bad his injuries were. He was bruised on his chest and his entire left side was red and covered in boils and burn marks in addition to the slash marks all over his body. There were several bruises all over him and small red spots what were swollen. There were also a couple deep gashes across his stomach, right side and back. This was in addition to his two black eyes and busted lip. His hooked nose looked off and she had a feeling it was broken.

She could tell the injuries extended below his abdomen, but she was uncomfortable with the idea of taking off his trousers. She removed his shoes and soaked socks, discovering his right ankle was clearly broken. Now she knew why he was barring all his body weight on the left side as he stood in the doorway moments ago. She could see some sort of odd bruising on his abdomen. Lily uneasily undid his trousers, exposing the top of his pants. She could tell it extended down to his pelvis at least. She was not going to see just how far it went down though. This was embarrassing enough without her exposing his...male parts. She did see that the one gash clearly extended down his right thigh. She redid his trousers. Those she planned on keeping on him, even though they were rather damp and concerned her.

Lily rolled up his trousers to his knees and realized he was injured all over his body. There was hardly an inch that did not have a mark or spot on the skin she had exposed so far. She saw bruises and burn marks all over his legs. Some injuries looked like they had been inflicted well before now and not just on his legs. Where did he get the bruises that were now healing?

She looked at his face again. He was still trembling so hard, he shook the floor, which shook the closet and bathroom door nearby. "I need some towels. Maybe I have something that I could use to help you. There must be something in one of my books."

She left him in the foyer and hurried upstairs and into her bedroom. She grabbed a few things she knew could help him a little, like some pastes and potions and a dark arts text Severus had once lent her that also contained counter curses. In a time of war, she thought it was a good idea to keep that text. After their fight, she had almost tossed it out. Now, she was very glad she had kept it.

Lily grabbed a handful of towels from the hall closet upstairs and rushed back down. She mopped up the floor with a couple of them where he had bled on their foyer rug and where he left a few puddles of rain from his soaked clothes. She got some warm, wet towels to clean up his injuries. As she started to wipe the blood off of his face, she heard her mother's car pull up. Lily was not sure what her mother would make of this situation and she wasn't sure what to say. She had told her mother she and Severus just didn't hang out anymore because they had other friends and weren't in many classes together, though the last part wasn't true. She and Severus had many classes together, but she hadn't wanted to get into the details of what had happened last summer.

Admitting that her old friend had changed into something so horrible had been too difficult. Her mother had never pressed her for details, but did not help much either, suggesting that it was for the best. Lily agreed, but yet, she didn't agree. It was impossible to see how her former best friend becoming a Death Eater was for the best. Breaking the friendship was for the best, but the reasons behind it were rather horrible.

Lily heard the keys enter the locks and jumped back. Her mother entered and nearly tripped over Severus's legs as she did, not expecting someone to be there.

"What the-" She gasped in both horror and shock as she looked at Severus and turned to Lily. "Lily-what?"

"He showed up a few minutes ago. Shut and lock the door."

Her mother did what Lily said. "Is that-Is that Severus?"

Lily nodded as she ran a warm towel over his chest. He grimaced with pain as she did.

"Dear heavens, what happened to him?"

Lily sighed. "Remember the Death Eaters I told you about?"

"The ones who are trying to take over your world? They did this to him?" The horror in her face was unmistakable. So was the disgust. "Horrible, horrible people."

"He's hurt badly." Lily folded the towel in another direction to a clean spot and continued to wipe off his stomach.

"He's unconscious? What did he say? Anything?"

"He said they are looking for me."

Her mother raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Who is?"

"Death Eaters. He said they want me-are looking for me."

Severus continued to shake almost violently. She put a clean, warm, and damp towel to his arm and tried to wipe off the drying blood.

"Lily, I think I should call an ambulance."

She shook her head. "No, they can't help. It's curses and hexes, our stuff. Muggles can't help him."

"Who can help then? That hospital? St. Something?"

She sighed sadly. "No, he'll be discovered. He tried to warn me. I can't expose him and risk him being killed or imprisoned."

"Why would he be killed or in jail? Did he do something wrong?"

"It's a long story, Mum. But he might be imprisoned because I don't really know what happened. I need some potions. I don't think I have anything to really help him except this bruising cream and this one for pain. I didn't bring much home." She sighed. "I can counter a couple of the hexes that are obvious, but I don't know some of the ones they did on him. I think they are very dark in their nature. One looks like it has given him burn marks all over his right side."She pointed to the burned skin on his side and cringed as she looked at it.

"Should we move him somewhere more comfortable?"

"Yes. Somewhere besides the rug."

"Let's take him upstairs where he will be out of sight."

She shook her head. "I can't lift him. He's too heavy for me. I had a hard time getting him completely inside as it is. I never tried to leviate anyone before, so I don't know if I can do it."

"Both of us can. Take him under the arms." Lily grabbed Severus under his arms and her mother took his legs and they heaved him up and carried him upstairs to her bedroom.

She made a jester with her head toward her bed. "Put him on my bed."

They laid him down. He stirred, grimacing.

"I'm going to go clean up the floor."

"It's okay, I can do it, Mum." Lily wiped her hands on her jeans.

"I will wash the towels then."

Lily nodded and looked at him.

"He's soaked. We should put him in dry clothes."

Lily felt horrified at that. "We can't do that!"

"He'll get sick-chilled in those. We'll just put him in dry shirt at least."

Lily wasn't sure about undressing him. She wouldn't be comfortable with him doing that to her in a reverse situation, but her mother was right. Severus needed dry clothes.

"I'll put a towel over his pelvis so we won't embarass him, but he can't stay in those wet clothes."

Her mother left the room. Lily deciede she needed to try and heal his wounds somehow, but she was not sure how to fix most of them. If she knew all the curses, she might be able to help more. Lily grabbed her wand. She said the counter she remembered of Severus's curse. The cuts of that curse disappeared. She undid a couple others she recognized.

She looked out the window. Rain was pelting it. A loud thunderclap shook the window pane and made her uneasy. What if what he said was true and they were looking for her? What if they showed up? What would she do? Severus was unable to help and her mother would be defenceless. It would be up to her to defend all of them and she didn't know if she could do that. She didn't know enough dark curses and besides, it would be her trying to save three lives while being attacked by god only knows how many of them versus her.

Lily paced the floor and looked back over at Severus, who was shaking and moaning in pain. He was awake at the moment, but seemed far too out of it to notice where he was. He hadn't said a word nor had he seemed to notice her. She watched him close his eyes again, still quivering terribly. At least he was not in a coma or anything.

Lily's mother came back into the room with a pair of pants, trousers, a shirt, a pair of socks and a large teal towel. She undid Severus's trousers. "Put the towel over him."

Lily placed the towel over Severus, covering part of his stomach to his thighs. Her mother pulled his pants and trousers off and put on a clean and dry pair of pants and then pulled on the trousers. Removing the towel, he mother redid the clean and dry trousers. "There. His dignity is still intact if he asks. None of his saw his privates."

She nodded with a twitch of a grin. "I'm going to go clean up." She left him alone to go downstairs.

"Lily, what all did he say when he arrived?" Her mother asked as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Not much, he was in a lot of pain and had trouble talking, but he said the Death Eaters were looking for me and that wanted to harm me and kill me."

"Kill you?" Her mother's face turned to panic, the colour from his cheeks draining. "Why?"

"I told you, Mum. They don't like people like me, witches and wizards of non-wizard families. They want us dead."

"I know and it worries me. They want to kill my child and you are telling me they are after you specifically and I just don't understand why."

Lily shrugged. "I don't know either." She sighed. "We seem to be safe. I don't think they know where I live. I don't know how they would know." She turned to her mother. "Honestly, they probably won't bother. They are probably just trying to frighten me."

"Why would Severus frighten you?"

"Not him, I mean the Death Eaters. Maybe frighten Severus too."

Lily saw her mum shake her head. "I think it was more than a fright and that's what concerns me. Severus is in a terrible condition. He was injured rather badly. It is obvious that someone wanted to harm him too and if they can do that to me-what will they do to you?"

She wasn't sure how to answer. "I don't know, but like I said, they don't know where I live so it's not a worry."

Her mother looked out the kitchen window. "This weather is terrible. I hope your sister will be okay."

"She'll be fine." Lily said. She did not really care about her sister right now.

"I think I will start some dinner. Why don't you go up and check on Severus? See if he's conscious or needs anything."

Lily sighed and gave a nod. "He awoke for a moment, but went right back to sleep."

"Then just check on him."

She went upstairs and into her bedroom. Severus was moaning a little and his eyes were closed, but she was not sure if he was just sleeping or if he was unconscious. She sighed and put one of her father's old shirts on him. She put some blankets over him since he was still trembling. He pulled himself around them in an effort to get warm. She huffed to herself as she got off the bed. She didn't know what would happen now and it looked like she needed to get out her old sleeping bag. Severus was not going anywhere tonight.

_**A/N:** This is a Sev/Lily fanfic, not one where it starts with them and ends with James/Lily. I started with James/Lily just to show where they are at, but that's not the listed characters so it's not them and it's not about James and Lily. I'm not against James/Lily as a pair, but that's already canon and since this is fanfic, I'm not sticking with canon plot. ;)_


	4. Chapter 4: Lily v Petunia

_Thanks to **Pichiguru, Flame55, TheAngelofIego, Sharecrow, Rawenclawbabe, VerySmallProphet** and **Gyoro and Ururun** for the reviews for chapter three. _

_A/N: Sorry this took so long to get up. I had issues with viruses and it wiped my files clean. Fortunately, many files I had saved onto a flash drive. Unfortunately I had not yet saved this chapter so had to rewrite the entire thing and it was almost finished prior. Plus school and illness kept me from keeping up with this story. Would have had it up earlier in the week, but had tons to catch up on and a Chemistry test yesterday so I am way behind on this story. I have not abandoned it. _

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><p><em><strong>Broken Wings<strong>_

**Chapter Four: Petunia vs. Lily**

Lily helped her mother fix dinner and Petunia arrived home an hour later. Severus had been in and out of consciousness, but was never awake long enough to realize where he was.

"Look at my gown!" Petunia exclaimed, coming into the kitchen, twirling it against her.

Lily ignored her sister and turned the potatoes in the pan.

"It's absolutely beautiful, Tuney. You are going to be a beautiful bride next weekend." Their mother said, admiring her daughter's gown.

"Isn't it wonderful? I can't believe I am getting married."

"I hope you have a happy life with Vernon, dear. He seems like a...hard-working young man."

Lily rolled her eyes, but refrained from saying anything because it wouldn't be pleasant. She also wanted to laugh that her mother could only say he was hard-working. He certainly was not pleasant or very kind. He also talked too much about himself. Petunia had broken the news the evening she came home that she had told Vernon that Lily was a witch and the school she went to was for odd people like her. Her mum has said that Vernon would have had to find out eventually anyway. She had done a spell to prove that she was indeed a witch, but the end result was Petunia and Vernon Dursley looking at her like a freak.

_"Magic-That's a very silly concept. And you people believe you are witches and wizards like in the fairy tales? Petunia was right-you're crazy-the lot of you!"_

_"It is real. I just showed you, didn't I?"_

_"Oh, I saw it-I just think like Petunia-freaks."_

Lily had been rather annoyed by him. Oh, he was mannerly enough, but it was so tempting to ask him every time he said something rude toward her and called her "that child" or "that childish sister of yours" how he hadn't broken their chairs because the man was a short, no-necked, chubby man. She was also quite tempted to hex his chair so it did break the next time he was over for a meal, especially when Petunia was all over him. She hung onto the man's every word. She always looked ready to pounce on the man most of the time. Petunia looked at him like he was a god. The way they kissed made her want to vomit. They looked like they were trying to resuscitate each other quite often.

"You came home just in time, dear. Dinner will be ready in five minutes."

"Okay. I am going to put up my gown."

"That's a great idea and Lily?"

Lily turned to her mother.

"Why don't you go check on Severus again before we sit down for supper?"

At that, Petunia's eyes grew wide. "Severus? That Snape boy is here?"

"Yes." Lily said through gritted teeth. "He needs my help."

"I bet he does. He needs a lot help, starting with some shampoo for his filthy hair."

Lily frowned and turned the potatoes again.

"Tell me he's not in my bed!" Petunia exclaimed in sudden horror.

Lily rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Why would we even consider it? He's on mine."

"Are you dating him?"

Lily knew she looked completely shocked, her eyes as wide as a large coin. "Of course not. It's a long story that is pointless to tell you because you won't listen anyway."

Before Petunia could respond, their mother cut across. "That will be quite enough. Petunia, put the dress up and Lily, go see if Severus is awake. If he's up, see if he needs anything. Don't look, touch, talk or annoy each other on the way, please?"

Lily went upstairs and opened the door to her bedroom. Severus was still sleeping. She shut her door and went back downstairs for dinner.

"These are the flowers. Aren't blue and gold lovely colours for the wedding? The baby bells and blue violets seemed perfect." Petunia spoke as they ate, showing the pictures to their mother.

"They are lovely, sweetie. Your wedding will be beautiful." Their mother moved her potatoes around with her fork.

"It will be perfect." Petunia glanced at Lily. "Almost."

Lily rolled her eyes as she buttered her bread carelessly.

"She is not allowed to ruin this for me."

"Wouldn't think of it." Lily spoke coolly.

Their mother took a sip of water. "Did you get the dresses for your maid of honour and bridesmaids, dear?"

"Yes," Petunia looked at Lily and took a sip of her water. "I hope the dress I got fits. If not, you'll have to deal."

"Petunia!" Her mother snapped, her fork clanging against her plate.

"Well, I gave them the size. If they messed up, nothing I can do." Petunia answered frostily.

"If it doesn't fit right, I'll alter it to fit. Maybe cut the dress to my thighs and remove any straps and cut the neckline down the centre of my bosom."

Petunia narrowed her eyes. "You wouldn't dare!"

Lily sneered. "Wouldn't I?"

"Girls! Enough already. I do not want to hear you ever calling your sister a tramp again, Petunia! And Lily, you will not dress that way at the wedding! That is the end of the discussion! Now, finish your supper. Not one more word to each other."

It was silent the rest of the meal. Petunia helped clean the dishes.

"Lily, can you go check on the plants out back? I want to make sure they weren't knocked over from the storm earlier."

Lily nodded. "Yes, mum." She went outside. The air was chilly as nightfall approached. The scun was setting over the horizon and faded stars were beginning to appear in the sky. The plants looked fine. The heavy rains from the rare storm seemed to perk them up.

When she went back in the house, she saw Petunia turn her back to Lily as she dried a plate and roll her eyes.

Lily cleared her throat. "I'm going to go up and see if Severus is awake."

Her mother turned to her. "That's a good idea. You sure we shouldn't seek more help?"

Lily shook her head. "Not if we can help it. Until he wakes up and stays up and can explain more, I don't think it's a good idea."

She went upstairs and peered into her bedroom. Severus moved slightly with a moan, but his eyes were still closed. He appeared to be sleeping instead of unconsciousness, but she was not certain of that. He did not have a concussion or sustain any brain damage from what she saw on her wand when she had checked him over earlier. She figured the pain was keeping from staying conscious, but that was not much of a consolation to her.

Lily left Severus alone and went back downstairs. She saw her sister twisting the phone cord, giggling stupidly while sitting on the kitchen counter.

"No, it's going to be lovely. Except my sister has to be a bridesmaid. Yeah, mum made me put her in the wedding. I know, it's so unfair."

Lily rolled her eyes and shook her head. She turned to see the telly on in the living room and walked in to find her mother sitting on the beige upholstered couch. Her mother smiled at the sight of her.

"Come sit. I'm watching the news." She gave a pat on the couch seat beside her.

She sighed and went to sit beside her mother.

"Mum?"

"Yes, dear?"

"Can I just not be a part of Petunia's wedding?"

Her mother heaved a sigh. "I think you should be a part of it. It's cruel to leave you it."

Lily let out a small huff. "She doesn't want me in it."

"Do you not want to be a part of it?"

Lily shrugged. "She doesn't want me in it. It'd probably be better if I didn't."

"I think you should be in it. Petunia is just being crazy with the wedding."

She sighed. "I don't know. She doesn't like me."

"Yes, she does."

"No. Ever since I got my letter to the school she has stopped liking me."

Her mother ruffled her hair a little. "It's well past time she got over her jealously. She goes to a lovely school, has good friends and is getting married. She gets to live in her own lovely home over in Surrey in a couple days. She has a good life."

"Shouldn't you tell her that? Instead of me?"

"Don't worry. I have."

"It didn't work."

Her mother sighed through her nose. "No, I keep hoping it will sink in soon."

Lily sighed.

"No, you hang up." Petunia said with a giggle. "No, you. You first. Okay, together on three. One, two, three. You didn't hand up." She giggled like a child.

Lily shook her head and rolled her eyes, resisting the urge to go into the kitchen and press the end call button on her own. She was also very tempted to pull out her wand and take the phone from her sister to end the call. Slight satisfaction pierced her lips at the thought of the look on her sister's face if she used her wand to end the call. She did not do it though. If her mum was not sitting there, she definitely would have.

"Petunia, get off the phone already and come watch the movie with us."

"Okay, Verny, my mum is getting mad at me so I need to get off. No, you hang up first."

"If I ever become that way, just hit me." Lily said to her mother, who laughed. Lily did not think it was funny. She thought her sister sounded like an idiot. tyi

"Speaking of boyfriends." Her mother started. "What about the James fellow who wanted to start dating you?"

"Oh, yeah. I forget about that. I was going to write to him earlier, but then Severus knocked at the door and I just forgot."

"You can tell James what happened. Make an interesting conversation."

Lily looked shocked. "I can't tell him that Severus is here!"

"Why not?"

"Mum, Severus said some people are after me. You saw him-you saw how hurt he was-is. What if the letter got intercepted and someone bad got a hold of it? I can't tell him. Not to mention the fact that Severus and James hate each other."

"I'm sure they don't hate each other."

Lily nodded. "Oh, believe me, they do. Have since they met on the train back on the first day and James put down Slytherin which led to a spat and James branding Severus with his nickname, Snivellus. They have hated each other since that moment."

"You never told me this James guy you want to date is also at odds with Severus."

"Why does that matter?"

Her mother shrugged. "No reason."

Lily was not so sure about that. She did not want to ask what her mother meant though. Petunia entered the room and sat beside their mother.

Lily managed to only make it through half of the film. "I think I'll go take a shower and maybe do some of my homework or something."

"The movie's not over yet." Her mother said.

"I can't listen to Petunia yap any more about Verny this and Verny that."

"Looks like someone is jealous of the fact that I'm getting married." Petunia spoke in a sing-song tone.

"Jealous? I'm only 17. I'm not jealous of you." Lily slid off the couch to her feet.

"You are so. You can't stand that I've had normal friends and a normal boyfriend. I bet you don't have any boys asking you out."

Their mother cleared her throat with a smile. "Actually, Lily got asked out by a boy at school."

"Great. Lily's gonna marry another freak."

"Petunia!" Her mother snapped. "I have told you not to call your sister that any more. I want you to apologize."

Petunia let out a heavy huff and jumped to her feet. "You always side with her! You always-you do! You like her better because of her stupid gift!" Petunia used her fingers to quote the word gift. "I'm the only one who sees it-the only one normal in this family! I'm the only one who knows that Lily is a freak! I'm the only one who sees it! The only one!"

"That's not true. I am not siding with anyone and I am proud of both of you. At the moment I am not proud of how you are treating Lily. She's your sister and I think you ought to show her more respect."

"I won't apologize to her. She doesn't deserve it!" Petunia stormed out of the room, mumbling under her breath.

Lily looked at her mother. "Told you she hates me."

Her mother let out a groan and got to her feet slowly. "Oh, I don't think she hates you at all. Hate's a strong word. I'm going to go talk to her."

Lily watched her mother go upstairs. Once her mother was out of sight she flopped onto the couch and let out a heavy huff.

"A few more days with Petunia and you won't have to live with her ever again. Four more days." She said out loud, but to herself.

0o0o0o

Lily pushed her hair back slightly, tucking a lock behind her ear. She replayed Severus's words in her head, thinking about what could have happened, how he knew all the information, why he was telling her, why they would be after her and where he had come from before this.

"Maybe he came from home, his dad doesn't like magic. No, he was injured while wearing those clothes. Was he attacked at home? Or somewhere else? Why wear trousers, a shirt and jacket though? Maybe he-"

"Don't tell me you're going in there!" Petunia screeched, interrupting her thoughts.

Lily let go of her bronze bedroom door handle and turned with a start to her sister. "Don't startle me like that!"

"You're wearing your gown!" Petunia's eyes were wide.

Lily raised her right eyebrow, desiring to scratch her head in confusion. "Yeah, it's late. I'm tired."

"But you're going in there!" She shrieked, her hand at her mouth.

Lily let out a huff of frustration. "It's my bedroom. I know you hate my stuff, but you're being ridiculous."

"Don't! I'm telling!"

Lily threw her hands up. "For what? I'm not doing anything, but making sure Severus is okay and going to bed."

"That's what I mean! You're going in there with him!"

Lily refrained from rolling her eyes. "So?"

"He's a boy, isn't he?"

Lily could not refrain from an eye roll this time. "Well, I never looked at his anatomy, but I'll take his word for it that he's a he."

Petunia scoffed, her arms across her chest, wrinkling her night gown. "You're a girl, Lily."

She feigned a gasp, her hand to her mouth, eyes wide with faux surprise. "Really? I had no idea. Thanks for the tip."

Petunia rolled her eyes. "You're such a bitch."

"Wonder where I got it from?" Lily opened the door to her bedroom. "Night." She shut the door back with a light grumble. "A few more days with her. That's all. Just a few more days."

Lily turned around and looked at Severus, who was breathing heavy and mumbling in his sleep. Sweat beads rolled down his forehead, clinging to his hair and others dripping on her throw pillow. She let out a heavy sigh and walked over to the bed. As she sat at the edge, he kicked off the quilt that was intended to keep him warm.

She grabbed a dry cloth and dipped it in the bowl of warm water by her bed. She twisted the towel, wringing out the water lightly. As she touched his face with the cloth, he winced and let out a cry of pain though he never opened his eyes. She cringed at his expression, but wiped off the sweat on his forehead.

Leaving the cloth against Severus's forehead, she summoned her potions and grabbed a small jar, twisting the golden cap off. She grabbed a teal cloth and dipped it into the molasses thick mauve potion. As she touched the long cut under his neck at the top of his chest with the potion, he hissed and clutched her off-white sheets.

His eyes bolted open as she got half of the cut covered with the potion. She stopped. He stared at her, his eyes looking off, like he was having some trouble seeing. He grabbed at his forehead and upon feeling the cloth, was sent into a panic. He tossed it off, sitting up for second, breathing like he'd just run a race.

"Lily!"

Lily was a bit surprised. "Severus."

Severus laid back down suddenly. "No. Lily. I need-find her-trouble."

"Severus?"

"He knows."

"Who? Severus?" Before Lily could get an answer, he had drifted back into sleep. "Dammit." She mumbled to herself. "I wish you'd get better already." She finished liberally applying the potion to his large cut, trying to be as gentle as possible.

Lily spent the next thirty minutes applying that potion to some of the cuts she had not gotten to heal yet. He stirred and grimaced throughout the time she worked on him, but never woke up. He mumbled to himself once, but she was unable to hear what he said.

Putting the quilt to his shoulders, he wrapped the blanket around him, shivering a little. It was normal to have a little fever while the counter-curses and healing potions did their job, but it still made her uneasy.

She flicked the light off and crawled into her sleeping bag. Fixing her pillow, she let out a heavy sigh.

Lily was startled awake and looked around the room, letting her eyes adjust to swollen darkness. She could see the clock over Severus's trembling body. 2:30AM. She shook her head once, bolted up, kicked the top of the bag off of her and flipped the light on.

Severus was nearly gasping. Lily shook him. "Severus! Wake up!"

"NO!" He cried out.

Lily shifted her eyes and out of the edge of her right eye she saw the cloths and water bowl. She leapt over the bed, jarring it as she hid and snatched a cloth, knocking the others off the table into a heap on the floor. She dunked the cloth in the bowl, the water stinging her hands slightly with all the heat gone from it.

Before Lily could ring the towel out a little, Severus cried out again.

"Lily! Find Lily before they do!"

Lily rung out the cloth and ran the fabric over his forehead and side of his face. "Severus? Wake up!"

His eyes bolted open and he let out heavy gasp. "I need to find Lily! They'll hurt her! He wants her-wants her gone! Need to warn her!"

"Severus? You've warned me. We're safe." She looked over at the shut door. "At least for now."

Severus's eyes were blurred with dizziness. He could hear someone talking to him, that they'd been warned, but could not make out their face at all.

"Lily? Does Lily know?"

"Yes, Severus. She knows. She's safe. You're safe. What happened?"

Lily watched him wobble and collapse back down.

"She's safe."

"Yes, and so are you. You need to get better." She sighed, took her hand and removed the strands of hair stuck to his forehead and pushed them away. As she put the towel against his forehead, she hummed a soft tune that her mother used to sing to her when she got scared at night or did not feel well.

_"__Coo roo koo, cooruku, coo ru ku, coo ku. Oh hush thee my dove."_

Severus tried to make out who was talking to him, but his head was pounded as he tried. His whole body burned like someone had lit him on fire and tingled like when his foot fell asleep. He heard someone humming to him softly. The voice was calm and soft. He shut his eyes as all the pain seemed to disappear for a moment. He drifted back into sleep.

_"__Oh, fold your wings and seek your nest now…The bird is home from the hills and valleys. Coo roo koo, cooruku, coo ru ku, coo ku. Coo roo koo, cooruku, coo ru ku, coo ku."_

Lily put the towel to his lips to dampen them before placing the towel on the side table. She slid off the bed slowly so as to not wake him from his slumber. An owl hooted outside, which startled her as she put the towels she had dropped earlier back onto the side table. Knocking them back onto the floor, she ran to the window. Unable to see in the dark room, she tripped over her cat's bed and stepped on his tail. The cat screeched and bolted from his bed and under Lily's.

"Oh, sorry, Boris. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." She whispered and slowly opened her curtains. She heard another hoot from an owl, but did not see one. "Must just be a wild owl. No one knows where we are."She let out a heavy sigh. "Severus is safe for now."

Lily glanced back over at Severus, who had not woken despite the noise. Her door burst open and Lily grabbed for her wand. She saw blonde hair flowing past someone's shoulders through the light from the hallway.

"Are you trying to wake up the whole neighbourhood?" Petunia snapped.

"No. I just tripped." Lily whispered.

"Why are you even up? It's three in the morning!"

"Shhh! Severus just went back to sleep."

Petunia scoffed. "Why should I care about your stupid freak of a friend?"

It was Lily's turn to scoff. "He's not stupid and he's not a freak. He's-" She paused as she realized she was raising her voice. "Just go back to bed. I don't want to talk to you. It's the middle of the night and I'm going back to bed."

Petunia let out a "hmph" and turned on her heel to head back to her bedroom, mumbling something under her breath. Lily shut the door quietly, put the cloths that had fallen back on the side table and crawled back into her sleeping bag.

0o0o0o

Severus's eyes ached as he opened them. Faint, bright light came in from his right. He turned his head and moaned. Dim light was peering from the side of a curtain and he realized the sun was rising. A light breeze made the egg-shell coloured curtains sway from the cracked window. He suddenly realized that this was not his bedroom. He sat up or tried to. Ripples of piercing, crushing and stabbing pain electrified his body. He cringed and gasped as he laid back down. He closed his eyes to stop the spinning and nausea that hit him.

The events of the meeting came to his mind and he opened his eyes again. He was not in the hospital. He knew this room. He had definitely seen it before. As the fog lifted from his mind, he remembered coming to Lily's and then he had lost consciousness. This was Lily's bedroom. Had she actually helped him? She must have. He turned to his left and saw the closed door. He turned to his right and saw someone in a sleeping bag. Lily's auburn hair flowed over the top of the sleeping bag. She stirred a little on her side. The bag moved up and down slightly with her breathing rhythm. She was obviously still sound asleep.

He heaved a heavy sigh, which was a mistake. His lungs burned from the inside out as his chest felt like a flame had been lit on the top of it. Pain surged through his chest and he grimaced. He looked down his shirt and saw marks on his body, some of which were healing or healed already. It hit him that Lily must have attempted to undo some of the curses that had been thrown on him. He'd have to thank her when she woke up.

Severus attempted to sit up again to go to the bathroom to empty his full bladder. He shut his eyes, swallowing back the bile that was trying to rise up his throat. He slowly got off the bed, moaning and grunting as quietly as possible. He immediately crashed to the floor upon standing. He grabbed for the dresser drawer as he started to fall. The drawer flew out of the nightstand and landed beside him with a crash, spilling its contents onto the floor.

Lily was awoken suddenly to a loud crashing sound. She bolted up and looked around. Her bed was empty. She stifled a yawn as she threw her sleeping bag back. "Severus?"

Severus attempted to get to his feet, grabbing the bed, but his legs felt like someone had put 20lb weights on them.

Lily came around the corner and saw him lying on the floor, sweat beads on his forehead. He was breathing heavy.

"What are you doing?"

"Bathroom. I need" He cringed. It felt like someone was crushing his vocal cords as he tried to talk. "to use the bathroom."

Lily held out her hand.

"What're you doing?"

"Helping you get up."

He hesitantly took her hand and she helped him to his feet. He felt her arm around his waist. The bathroom was only one door down from Lily, but it seemed like it was a mile away to him. Lily left him holding the sink for privacy. He opened the toilet lid slowly, the room spinning on him as he used the bathroom. He stood over the toilet, waves of nausea piercing him until he finally vomited. After he had gotten sick the second time, he felt better and made his way out of the bathroom gradually. He fell in the hallway and was glad no one at school was seeing him like this, crawling on the floor. At least the hall was carpeted.

Lily helped him back into bed. She had gotten dressed while he was in the bathroom. "I'd ask if you wanted anything to eat, but I heard you get sick so I won't bother. Would you like something to drink?"

Severus shrugged.

"I'll get you something to drink then. Something cold, perhaps?"

"Why are you-why are helping me? You-you hate-you hate me."

"I don't hate you." She huffed. "Being angry with you doesn't mean I hate you. I don't think I could really ever hate you, depending on what you did. Calling me someone horrible isn't enough to hate you. Mad at you? Pissed off at you? Of course. But hate? No." She sighed as she finished fixing her hair. "You came here to help me, warn me, right?"

Severus nodded. "They want to harm you."

She sighed softly. "Well, you were and still are in serious need of help. You passed out in my doorway. You were bleeding profusely and were badly injured. I had to do something and I didn't know if you'd been followed or not so I brought you into the house. You are heavier than you look."

"How did you-how did you bring me-bring me-here?"

"Upstairs? Mum and I did. After she got back. She put you in a clean shirt and I dried your pants. I didn't want to take those off-figured you'd kill me if I did."

"Thanks." He looked at her. "Lily"

"Yes?" She stopped in the doorway.

"I'm sorry-for calling you that-calling you that-word. I really am-sorry."

Lily sighed and left the room. He laid back down. As he started to drift to sleep, he was startled by a clinking noise.

"Brought you some juice."

Severus sat up to take a sip, but the juice sloshed out of the cup he was shaking so much. Lily took the cup and put it to his lips. He groaned to himself and took a couple sips. He shook his head as she tried to get him to drink more.

"That's all you're going to drink?"

Severus nodded with his head feeling like someone had lit a match inside and it was burning from the inside out. "Hurts."

"What does? Your throat?"

Severus moaned and shut his eyes with a curt nod. "Everything-hurts."

Lily sighed and set the cup on the dresser, the ice clinking against the glass.

"Everything okay?" Someone asked.

Lily turned to see her mother standing in the doorway. "He's conscious anyway. Still in a lot of pain. He got sick a couple times in the bathroom. Having trouble walking too. And drinking."

"Let him rest. We'll see about getting some fluids down later."

Lily nodded and slid off the bed to her feet, trying to not jar the bed in the process.

"Let's get moving. We'll leave him here. He'll be safe."

"I don't know."

"He'll be okay. He just needs to rest and let his body heal. You did all you could so far, right?"

Lily nodded. "Yes."

"Just leave them both here." Petunia spoke up, leaning on the door frame to her bedroom.

"Tuney, your sister is going to be in your wedding. You are family. Start acting like it. Now, let's go run some errands, okay? You still don't have any shoes yet."

"I can't find the perfect pair."

"You can't go barefoot, dear."

"I'll go barefoot." Lily spoke up.

Petunia turned quickly toward Lily from the top of the stairs. "You will not!"

Their mother pointed down the stairs. "Let's go now. Come along."

Lily followed behind her mother and sister out to the car. She got in the back, trying to ignore Petunia's stupid dilemmas. It was just shoes and no one would see them anyway since the dress would cover them. There were pressing issues to worry about than stupid shoes to wear for a wedding.

Lily tried on a pair of shoes at the first store. It took trying on three pairs to find some simple light gold coloured shoes with thin heels. "These fit and they match. I'll just take these."

"Those are terrible and they don't match at all."

"Yes, they do. And they fit better than the dress. You got the wrong size."

"I got the size Mum said. I can't help it if they got your order wrong."

"They didn't. You told them the wrong size hoping I would not come."

Petunia feighed surprise. "Why would I ever do that?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "The shoes are fine. I am wearing them to the wedding."

"Girls, we are in a store. Please stop the bickering while we are out."

"But look at those shoes. They are a different gold than the dress. They will look awful. She's going to make me look terrible."

"They look quite close in colour to me, Petunia."

Petunia folded her arms with a huff. "Fine. Make me look bad."

"She's not going to make you look bad. The shoes are fine." Their mother pulled out a box. "These look lovely. Try these on."

Lily waited for Petunia to try on the shoes and walk around. "I don't like them. They feel odd when I walk. They aren't me. The sparkles on the shoes are too outlandish. No. They won't do."

Lily huffed. "This is going to take all day." She mumbled to herself.

"Well, unlike you I don't pick the first pair I see and decide it matches when it doesn't."

"They will look fine. Besides, I can change the colour to match the dress if I want."

Petunia glared at her as she put the shoes back in their box. "I said you can't do your freaky stuff for my wedding."

"Oh, you did? I forget. I already fixed a few things."

Petunia gasped. "You didn't!"

"Just the dress and the flower bracelet that was wilting."

"What did you do to that dress?"

"I just made it fit to my size."

"You better not have given it cleavage or cut it short! I told you not to do that!"

Lily smirked. "I didn't, but that's not a bad idea."

"Mum!"

"She's not serious, Petunia. Please, both of you. Don't speak to each other anymore. Lily, why don't you look for some new sneakers? Petunia, find a pair of shoes. We have to get them today. We are running out of time."

"And I don't want to be here all day. We shouldn't be anyway. I don't want to leave Severus for very long."

"Oh, so now little Miss Freak wants the other neighbourhood freak, huh?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Don't be stupid. I don't want him at all. He's hurt very bad and I don't trust leaving him alone for long."

"He's probably sleeping in your bed."

"Yes."

"Did you spend last night with him?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "For such a prude, you have a rather dirty mind."

"I am not a prude nor am I a slut!" Petunia screeched.

"I never called you a slut!"

"Why not? You're one!"

"Petunia!" Her mother snapped in shock.

"Well, what else would you call someone who can't make up her mind between two different boys?"

"I'm not making up my mind about anything! I'm don't want Severus and I'm not going to date him! I would never date him!" Lily turned on her heel and left the aisle without another word.


	5. Chapter 5: Wedding Derailed

_Thanks to **Flame55, RawenclawBabe, Gyoro and Ururun, Random Person, EmD23, VerySmallProphet,** and **Sevlily4ever** for the reviews. _

_**A/N:** If you have an critique or praise for this chapter, I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts as I work to make this story better. _

* * *

><p><em><strong>Broken Wings<strong>_

**Chapter Five: Wedding Derailed**

Severus saw Lily come into the room. "Are you feeling any better?"

He shook his head.

"Would you like anything to drink or eat?"

He shook his head again. "Not-hungry."

Lily looked at his shirt that was damp and at the glass of juice on the nightstand. "Looks like you've tried to drink a little more."

"Most of it didn't make it-to my mouth."

He saw a twitch of a smile form on her lips and watched her cross the room with a box.

"What's that?"

"Just shoes." She took them out of the box. "Petunia's getting married this weekend."

Severus was rather surprised to hear that. He didn't think anyone would want to marry someone like her. "To who?"

"Some guy named Vernon."

"Take it you don't-you don't like him?" He wiped sweat beads off of his forehead.

"Not really. He feels the same about my ability as Petunia and spends way too much talking about himself. He doesn't even let Petunia talk. She mostly just fawns over the guy, but he never shuts up about himself."

"Figures."

Lily sighed and took the dress out of her closet. "They match just fine."

"That's what you are-you're wearing-to the-to the wedding?" He shut his eyes, his cheeks growing hotter than they already were.

"Yes. I'm a bridesmaid. Mum's idea, not mine. Petunia would rather I not attend at all and I would happily oblige. Mum insists though that I be a part of it. If I ever get married, I doubt Petunia will bother to attend and that's fine by me. She'd just ruin it somehow to get back at me." Lily let out a soft sigh.

"It looks nice."

Lily turned to him and noticed that he was shaking, his fingers trembling as he clutched her quilt, which shook her bed. His face was sweaty and his already greasy looking hair looked like damp strings in the front as a result. She hung her dress back on its hanger, hung it on the closet door and moved closer to her bed. His teeth were chattering slightly. She felt his cheeks with the back of her hands and then pressed her hand on his forehead.

Severus looked at her strangely. "What are you-doing?"

She shook her head and looked at with concern. "You're burning up. This isn't good."

"I'm fine." He pulled the covers up tighter around him and it was only then that he realized he was shaking the bed in his chills. "I'm fine." He reassured, but she just shook her head.

"No-no, you aren't. I think you have an infection."

"Just a few curses."

"And they gave you an infection very quickly. What curses did they hit you with?" Her eyes narrowed and she bit back a huff of frustration.

"Mine-my curses and others-crucio and burning-burns up my legs and my-my side. Chest-hit my chest with something-burns-it burns. Kicked me too-stomach-in the stomach-chest. Other curses-don't know-I don't know what they are-they hit-didn't catch all of `em."

Lily shook her head. "I think I have some anti-infection potion with me." She got under her bed and pulled out her trunk. She yanked it open and tossed the potions around, looking through the bottles. "Found it." She filled a dropper. "A couple days of this twice a day should do the trick. I'll give you some now and then late tonight."

Severus sighed and took the potion. "Thanks."

"For what?"

"Doing this."

"You don't have to thank me. Just get better." She sat on the bed. "Now, you feel up to telling me what happened yesterday?"

Severus sighed. "I can try."

"I'd like to know." She moved back to prop herself up with the headboard. "Okay, I'm all ears."

Severus glanced at her white socks for a moment before moving up his up until they reached her face. "I was out at someone's manor."

"Were other Death Eaters there?"

Severus cocked his head for a moment before nodding slightly.

"Let me guess? You wanted to go to prepare to join too, huh?" There was not any pity in her voice.

Severus said nothing. It was silent for a few minutes before he let out a small sigh. "I was."

"So what happened?" Her voice softened.

"Not much at first. Met him."

"Him? You mean him, You-Know-Who?" Her left eyebrow raised.

"Yes." Severus nodded and moaned. "Didn't go over well."

"Why? What happened? Did he do all this to you?"

Severus shook his head. "Not really. Not directly."

"What does that mean?"

He was rather surprised that she was not completely pissed off that he went over there and met the Dark Lord. However, he figured his condition and showing up here to warn her did help her see that he was serious and that maybe he was rethinking his position in the war, which he was.

"He looked into my mind-memories-saw you. Something about a prophecy when left-going to do away with you-for him-tell him about it."

"What are you talking about? What prophecy?"

"I didn't catch it all. Thinks it's you. Girl of flaming hair, born of muggles in 60 to birth a child that will defeat him-the Dark Lord. Will have powers he knows not or something. He mentioned it-Some random seer spoke it a few weeks ago. He believes it. They think it's you."

Lily's eyes were wide with shock. "Why?"

"Born in 60 when the first month nearly died. You have red hair-flaming hair. Born at the end of January, have muggle parents."

Lily choked. "But it can't be me."

"It may mean you."

"But it can't be. Me have a child who can defeat him? Not possible."

Severus shrugged a little. Lily put a wet cloth against his forehead. He winced as the cold water stung him. Lily looked at him strangely.

"It's cold."

She raised an eyebrow. "No, it's not. I made sure it was lukewarm. If it was cold it would make you worse." She shook her head. "Those curses did a number on you."

"I'm sorry, Lily."

She huffed. "You don't have to keep apologizing."

"Not for the word-though I'm sorry-I called you that. Very sorry. I won't ever do it again."

She raised an eyebrow again. "Never? You'll never use that word again?"

Severus paused for a moment. "No."

Lily sighed. "I can accept that apology."

He shook his head to make sure he wasn't hearing things and then glanced up at her face. "Why now?"

"Because I think you actually are sorry."

"I was before."

"Only to me. Not for the word and you never said you wouldn't use it again. You weren't sorry for what it meant to me or why it was so hurtful. You didn't get it. I couldn't accept the apology."

Severus sighed. "Well, I am sorry. I'm sorry about the prophecy though-that it was told-that he heard-that they believe it's you and want to destroy you-harm and kill you-I'm sorry."

"That makes two of us. It's not your fault. Now you need to stop talking before you aren't able to speak at all. There are only a few ways they can find out where I am. The ministry, the school and your parents. Though they could come here and ask around for my address and come across a neighbour of mine who thinks they just want to visit and gives them my location. Of course, they wouldn't know the danger so it wouldn't be their fault. I wouldn't worry too much. We have about six weeks of summer left so we'll be back to school shortly."

Severus shook his head. "I'm not."

She raised an eyebrow. "Not what?"

"Not going back."

Lily's jaw dropped. "But, Sev, that's crazy!"

Severus felt a smile hit his lips. "You just called me Sev."

Lily frowned. "You have to go back. You can't ignore your education. You're too smart to quit."

"And what? Get killed by my roommates? No thanks."

"What're you going to do instead?"

"When I get better-get out."

"Get out?" She raised an eyebrow again.

"Go somewhere else. Somewhere far away, where they can't find me. You'll be safe at school. You have friends and others-to look out for you."

Lily felt a strong unease with that. "You shouldn't just run, you know."

Severus glared at her. "I'm not running. Staying here and going to school-that's suicidal. I don't have a death wish. Look at me. Close enough already."

Lily rolled her eyes. "You're not dying."

"No, but-nearly. They tried."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean they tried?"

"You think-you think the goal was to-just hurt me? They wanted to-to kill me. Left me for dead."

"Why not just use the killing curse?"

"That doesn't involve-suffering. I refused-they decide-decided to not-let me live-want me to live." He moaned and shut his eyes.

"What do you mean you refused?"

He let out a small sigh. "They wanted me to."

"To what?"

"Take them to you. Wanted me to do it."

"They wanted you to kill me?"

Severus nodded once with a groan.

"But you didn't." She spoke in a small voice.

"No."

Lily paused for a moment, looking out the open door to the light gray carpet in the hallway. "You refused him."

"Who?"

"You-Know-Who."

"Wasn't his idea-not completely, but they-they believed it's you-the Dark Lord did too. So in a way-yes."

"They won't let you back in."

"To join the Death Eaters? No." He shook his head once lightly.

"So you-you gave it up-risked your life-to not let me die?"

Severus looked at her with a raised eyebrow, though it hurt to make that expression. "You think I'd let you-just let you die?"

Lily felt a lump in her throat. "I didn't know-but I guess you wouldn't."

"You wouldn't let me die either."

"Of course not." She got another cloth, dipped it in the lukewarm water and put it on his forehead.

He cringed. "Cold."

Lily sighed. "It's not cold. I hope the infection clearing potion works. I think they put the fever curse on you-maybe the infection one. Probably the latter. Slow and painful way to make someone very ill."

"I don't know all-what all they did. Too many at once."

Lily sighed again. "I'm going to go downstairs and help my mum with dinner preparations. You want anything to eat yet?"

Severus shook his head."No."

"You should eat something or try to anyway. It's been more than 24 hours since you ate anything."

He shook his head.

"Okay. Fine, but tomorrow you need to get something in your stomach. You won't live if you don't eat." She got off the bed. "I sent a note to your mother to tell her you were fine. Don't worry, I didn't say where you were, just that you were hurt, but safe. Mum dropped the note in your post slot. She didn't want me going over in case anyone would be there. It was early this morning she dropped it off."

Severus gave a nod and shut his eyes.

Lily looked at him for a moment before turning on her heel and exiting the bedroom. She closed the door back.

"What were you doing?"

Lily jumped with a gasp and turned to see Petunia standing near her bedroom door with her arms folded across her chest and a smirk on her face. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Hanging around that Snape kid."

Lily started toward the stairs.

"You know Mum won't be happy."

Lily stopped just ahead of going down the steps. "What?"

"You-alone with him."

Lily rolled her eyes. "I don't think that's your business. I think you should let mum decide what is or isn't okay in her house." She didn't hear if Petunia said anything else, hurrying down the stairs.

_Three Days Later_

Severus watched Lily put on some shoes. Petunia burst into the door. "Hurry up!"

Lily glared at Petunia. "I'm ready. Where's mum?"

"In her room. Let's go already. I want to be there early. I'll be in the car."

Lily let out a huff. "We'll be back in a few hours. Tonight will be the last night I have to live with Petunia. She'll be gone early in the morning and will be married in the evening and off with her new husband. He bought a house over in Surrey for them to live in so she won't even be in the same town."

Severus grinned for a second. "Bet you'll like that."

Lily turned to him as she headed out the door. "The only person who doesn't is Mum. You should eat that food. You haven't eaten much since you got here. You won't get yourself better if you don't eat."

"I'll eat when I'm hungry. I think I'll take a hot bath while you're gone. I haven't had a bath since the day I went to that manor."

The car horn honked. "Well, it'll be nice and quiet here. Good time to take a hot bath." She sighed as the car horn honked again "Mum and I will be back in a couple hours as I said. You can keep Boris company."

Severus looked over at the fluffy gray and white cat sunbathing on the floor of Lily's room where the sun was coming in through the window. "Yeah, right."

Lily smiled and let out a huff as the car horn honked for a third time. "I better go." She hurried down the stairs and out to the car.

"Severus seems to be doing better. At least a little." Her mother said as they stood at the open doors of the chapel. waiting to enter.

"Yeah. Still not eating much though. The infection he had seems to be gone."

"You don't seem as bitter about him as you did when he first got here."

Lily shrugged. "We've talked. I don't feel as bitter anymore, no."

"I'm glad to hear that you aren't angry with him. Are you two friends again?"

Lily shrugged again. "I don't know. We seem to be on better terms at least. Maybe friends. Why?"

"No reason. I was a surprised your friendship lasted as long as it did."

Lily was taken aback hearing that statement. "Why?"

Her mother shrugged. "You just seemed so different."

"We're not the same, but we still enjoyed each other's company and got along until he changed."

"That James guy seems like a nice fellow. Have you told him I agreed to let you date him?"

"Not yet." Lily raised an eyebrow suspiciously toward her mother.

Lily's mother looked at her in surprise. "Why not?"

"I've just been busy."

Her mother pursed her lips. "Hmm."

Lily huffed. "What?"

"You keep putting that off. I thought you wanted to date him."

"I do, but we won't even see each other until September so we won't be dating until then. He'll be out of town the next three weeks, said he was spending it on holiday. I could send him a letter, but figure I'll do it when he gets back."

"Okay. I just want to make sure you aren't having second thoughts."

"No. With the wedding and Severus showing up and all, I've just had my mind in a million places. I feel like I haven't stopped, that's all. No second thoughts."

_The next morning_

Lily put on her dress with a huff.

"Come on, Lily! You are going to make me late!"

"I know, I know." She came out of the bathroom. "I can do my own makeup and hair, you know that? I don't need a hair salon nor do I need a makeup person. My wand works just fine."

"This is not a wedding involving freaks and their freaky ways. No freaks or freaky magic bull is allowed."

"Too bad Mum is making me be your bridesmaid, right?"

"Don't ruin this for me! This is my day, not yours! Mine! Understand? Make yourself unseen and unheard. It's my turn. Got it?"

Lily refrained from rolling her eyes. "Fine." She left the bathroom and looked in at Severus.

"We're leaving for awhile. I'll be back around lunch and then the wedding is tonight. Hope it's better than the rehearsal."

Severus grinned. "I'll be fine. You've already given me something to eat. I'll be here in this bed most likely when you get back. I won't touch your things."

"Nothing really in here too personal."

The car horn beeped loudly. She rolled her eyes. "I need to go. You'll be okay alone?"

"Yep."

0o0o0o

Lily was already annoyed by the time she arrived at the church for the wedding.

"Just ignore her. She's just over excited. Desperate to make her wedding day perfect." Her mother stated as she turned off the vehicle in the parking lot of the chapel.

Lily said nothing as she got out of the car. "And it's not going to be. I'm in it."

"Don't get upset now. Let's just go enjoy the day. Petunia needs to let this go and she will have a great day."

She huffed heavily. "I hate all her friends."

"I don't know what they said, but don't let it bother you."

She did not want it bother her, but it did. It was just awkward being in a place where she was not wanted and not liked.

Lily waited with the other girls in one of the classrooms. There were Bible verses tacked on the walls, a cross with a purple linen drapped over it and a picture of Jesus praying on a rock at the Garden of Gethsemane in the room.

"Look, Petunia's tag-along is back."

She rolled her eyes at their giggles and read over a Romans verse

"Hey, uh, Lily?"

Lily turned to glare at the tall, thin young woman with dark oak coloured hair. "What?"

"Nothing, you just have something on your back."

Before Lily could stop her, the girl had a hold of her dress strap. "What're you doing?"

There was a rip. "Oops. Sorry. I just wanted to get the thing off your back."

Lily turned, looking daggers at the girl. "You ripped my dress on purpose."

"No, I didn't." She spoke in a tone that was unconvincing to Lily.

"You know I can fix it, right?" Lily summoned her wand as Petunia entered the room.

"Lily, what're you doing? You're trying to ruin this day for me!"

She rolled her eyes. "I'm trying to fix my dress."

"Using a stick?" The other woman asked.

"She thinks she's a witch." Petunia said. "She's a freak. I already told you that."

"I'm not a freak. I'm going to go fix my dress." Lily started to leave the room.

"Not with that, you won't."

Petunia grabbed Lily's arm and tried to pry the wand from her. Lily tired to removed Petunia's bony hand from her wrist and the wand backfired. Petunia was thrown across the room, landing on the floor near a light oak wooden podium. The other girls looked frightened now and were gasping.

"What did you do?" The tall girl asked.

"Nothing. She did-I didn't-I-"

Petunia got to her feet, sliding a little in her heels on the beige tiled floor, her face blood red, eyes bulging and fists clenched. "Get out! I don't want you in this wedding! I never wanted you in this wedding! I never want to see you or talk to you ever again! You can't even allow me one day! It's my day! Mine! You've ruined it! I hate you! I'll always hate you! You're nothing but a stupid little freak! You ruin everything! Just get out of my sight!"

Lily felt a lump in her throat and tears pierce her eyes, blurring her vision.

"Aww, she's gonna cry now." Someone with a burly voice spoke behind Lily.

"You don't want me here." Lily said, her voice trembling. She cleared her throat and set her jaw firm. "Fine. I don't want to be here either. Don't want to see me or talk to me again? That's just fine by me!" She burst out of the room and hurried out of the church. She apparated to her backyard, yanked the back door open and nearly slammed it back, but caught it before it hit the hinge and shut it gently.

She walked across the bluish gray living room carpet to the hallway, passing the kitchen and dining room and hurried up the stairs. Shesaw her bedroom door open and room empty. Severus was not in her bed. She looked across the hall beside of Petunia's bedroom and saw the bathroom light on.

Lily took off her dress and sat on the bed in her slip, looking at the huge rip on the sleeve of the dress. It was tempted to shred the dress to pieces. If her mother hadn't been the one to pay for the dress, she probably would have torn it up. She pulled off the hosiery, letting out a sob. Yanking the clips out of her hair, she got one stuck. Pulling it seemed made it tangle even more.

Severus entered the bedroom to see Lily sitting on the bed in a slip. He edged toward the bed slowly as she yanked hard at her hair, trying to get a small pin out and sobbing. He took a deep breath and sat on the bed, startling her.

"Everything okay?"

"Fine." Lily yanked harder at the stuck clip, letting out a grumble of frustration.

Severus gathered up his courage, took his shaky hand and touched her hair. Her eyes met his hand and made him want to pull away, but he didn't. He moved the hair around the pin, untangling it and removed it from her hair. He cleared his throat, holding the clip up.

"Here." He handed her the clip. "It was stuck. You, um, you seemed to be having trouble. Getting it out, that is."

Lily looked at him and shook her head, realizing she was staring in shock. He was not usually so gentle. She guessed it was because she was upset and making things worse. "Thanks." She took the clip and laid down.

"The wedding can't be over yet. It wasn't even supposed to start yet."

She shrugged. "It's over for me."

"Guess it didn't go well."

She let out a sob and shook her head. "I never wanted to be a part of it in the first place."

"Why didn't you just say no?"

"I told you. Mum made me-made Petunia make me a part. She doesn't like me-doesn't want me there. Not here, not Vernon, not any of their friends. I just decided to leave."

Severus sighed. Lily was going to be a part of that wedding, despite not wanting to be. He saw the dress on the floor and saw one of the straps was ripped. He doubted Lily just decided to come home. Something had happened. "Forget her. She's just a-"

"Don't you dare say muggle."

"Actually I was going to say jealous bitch, but muggle sounds better."

Lily figured she ought to be mad that Severus called her sister a jealous bitch, but she wasn't. She could not snap at him for the comment when she had the very same words come to her own mind. "Not all muggles are bad, you know."

"Some of them are."

Lily scoffed. "You still haven't changed. Still wanna be just like them-believe that stuff about blood."

Severus shrugged. "Well, some are bad. My dad's a muggle. So is your sister. They aren't nice people."

"My parents are muggles and they are plenty nice. My father was a good man."

Severus sighed. "I didn't mean it like that."

Lily huffed. Severus laid on his side, his weight growing heavy on his hurt arm. Lily heard him let out a light groan.

"I'm sorry, Lily."

"What?" She turned slightly to look at him slightly puzzled.

"I said I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Saying that. I didn't mean it like that. Really."

Lily sighed heavily. "I miss my dad. I-I wish he was still here-still alive."

Severus slowly touched her arm. He did not say anything. He didn't have to. She did not pull away either.

"My mum seems lonely without him. Petunia's now married and gone. I'll be back at school in a few weeks and she'll be alone. Mum's not been doing well. She's been feeling ill a lot. Stomach aches mostly. She gets them a lot and won't eat much anymore."

"You think something's wrong with her?"

Lily nodded. "She says it's not anything, just her bad stomach, but she gets them quite a bit. I don't like it-don't have a good feeling about it. She looks sickly. She's so pale and tired all the time."

Severus put his head on the edge of the pillow. "I'm sure she'll be fine."

Lily sighed and looked at her cat, who was asleep, curled up in his bed. She shut her eyes, imagining her sister's wedding being ruined with the flower girl vomiting in the aisle or the ring bearer dropping and losing the rings or a rain shower popping up as they left the church, damaging her sister's wedding gown.

0o0o0o

"Lily!" Someone called, startling her awake. "What do you think you are doing?"

"What?" Lily rubbed her eyes and turned onto her back.

Severus was jarred awake, his vision blurred a little.

"What are you doing?" Her mother's eyes were wide with shock.

"What? What's wrong?"

Lily looked over at Severus, who was still groggy and it hit her why her mother was so angry. "It's not what it looks like, honest!"

Her mother folded her arms with a heavy frown. "Oh?"

"I can explain."

"I'm waiting."

"I came home to an empty room and took off the dress and stuff and sat on the bed. Severus came in. I was lying on the bed and he came over and-I was upset so he wanted to know why. I fell asleep. He did too apparently. Nothing happened. I promise."

"Get out of the bed and come downstairs." She spook coolly.

Lily nodded and threw back the quilt, swerving around to plant her feet on the floor. She followed her mother out of the bedroom.

Severus watched her with unease. _"This is my fault. She's going to get in trouble and it's my fault for lying beside her while she was lying down. Stupid. What were you thinking?"_

Lily looked her mother. "We didn't do anything. It's not like that at all."

"He's barely been here a week and you sleep in the same bed with him?"

"We fell asleep. That's all. Nothing happened. I don't like him like that. We don't-we don't have that connection-nothing romantic-no love anything. I swear."

Her mother opened a bag on the kitchen counter and set out a container. "You were supposed to write James back? Did you do that yet?"

Lily let out a huff "No, but-"

"Why didn't you? I mentioned it yesterday. You said he's going away so why wait? Are you starting to like Severus?"

Lily blinked a couple times in shock at her mother's question. "No-no. Of course not. Not at all. I don't like him." She scoffed. "That's ridiculous to even think about. You've seen him. You know him. He's not my type."

"What's your type?" Her mother put her hand on her abdomen.

Lily shrugged. "I don't know-but he's not it."

Her mother let out a heavy breath. "I wouldn't write James until you know for sure what you want."

Lily huffed. "I know what I want. There's nothing between Severus and myself."

Her mother looked at her with an eyebrow raised. "Help me put up the wedding favours. It's late and I'm not feeling well."

"Your stomach again?"

She looked at Lily, her lips pursed as if she was on the verge of saying something. Her shoulders dropped slightly. "I just ate something off at the reception, that's all."

Lily sighed. "Okay. I'll put up the stuff. You can go lay down."

"After you put them up, put on some clothes. Don't go to bed wearing just that and don't you get back in that bed with Severus. If you want a bed, you can sleep in Petunia's or-"

"Mum?"

She looked at Lily.

"I promise you-on my life that we did not anything at all. Not even a kiss. I promise we'll never do anything like that."

Her mother looked at her for a moment with an expression Lily couldn't read.

"What?" Lily gestured her hands palm side up in confusion and shook her head slightly.

"Don't make a promise you can't keep. You know better."

Lily was gobsmacked. "What?"

"Don't make promises you can't keep. You know better."

"What does that mean?"

Her mother raised an eyebrow. "Never do anything with Severus. Don't make such a promise if you aren't sure you'll be able to keep it."

"Of course I'll keep it. I like James. He asked me out. I want to go out with him-I do. I don't like him. I like James. "

"You're getting a little defensive."

Lily huffed, "I'm not making a promise I can't keep."

"Then don't promise such nonsense. You don't know what the future holds for you. Don't make a promise to never be with someone. Now, I'm going to lay down. Stay off the bed with Severus."

Lily watched her mother go up the stairs and refrained from rolling her eyes. "Severus and I doing anything like that would be ridiculous. We'd never work. We're way too different. Friends is one thing, but more than that. No, not possible. Mum's being absurd."


	6. Chapter 6: Dusk and Dawn

_**A/N:**__ Thanks for the alerts and favourites to this story and thanks to __**Flame55, **__**Lone Wolfgood, Gyoro and Ururun, Raven Lockwood, KraZiiePyrozHavemoreFun, Polaris**__ and __**Professor Radar**__ for the reviews. _

_You got this alert again because I changed this chapter. Some of the scenes are still here, but I took out a scene and added a different one. I will work on the new reviews that have some in from other chapters and add them later. I don't plan on deleting and reuploading any more chapters. I apologize for the first time. Something got messed up on all the chapters and there were weird line things on almost all of them and the sizing was different throughtout the last three I had done so I deleted and re-uploaded them. It worked to fix the issues. The second time was because I revised them and decided to delete and redo them. Sorry about that. _

* * *

><p><em><strong>Broken Wings<strong>_

**Chapter Six: Dusk and Dawn**

_Same Evening_

Lily went into her bedroom and saw Severus sitting up in her bed, reading through a book. She went over to her dresser and got out her night clothes.

"Lily?"

She turned as she shut a drawer.

"I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean to get you in-trouble."

Lily turned to him with a brief grin. "Don't worry about it. It's my fault. I let you use my bed. I shouldn't have been it."

"I can sleep on the floor if you want your bed back."

Lily shook her head. "Nonsense. You need the bed." She sighed. "Mum just panicked, that's all. I mean, she saw us lying in bed together. Her mind just went there and she panicked. I explained it. She understands."

"I still didn't mean to get you in any trouble."

"I'm fine." She laughed. "Mum told me to be careful. Thinks I like you like that. Isn't that crazy?"

Severus hesitated to answer her, a bit shocked. "Uh, yeah. Crazy." He turned on his side, not wanting to face her.

Lily glanced over at him. He was not looking at her, lying on his side, facing the door. She suddenly felt uncomfortable, like something was nagging at her. She shut down the thought quickly.

She cleared her throat. "I'm going to go-I'm going to go to the bathroom and get ready for bed." She walked past her bed, glimpsing back at him. His eyes were shut, but she doubted he was sleeping.

When she went back to her room, she looked at him again. "If you want, I can sleep in Petunia's room. I mean, if you aren't comfortable with me in here."

Severus opened his eyes. He was not sure what to say to that. He wanted her in here, but yet, he didn't want her to be uncomfortable with him. She looked really pretty in her gown, her red hair flowing over her shoulder.

"It's whatever you want. I'm not uncomfortable, but if you are, you can sleep in another room. Or I will. This is your room. I'll go to your sister's room."

Lily gazed at him with a look of surprise. "You would sleep in my sister's bed?"

"As long as the sheets are clean and she's not in it."

Lily looked at him a moment. Severus watched trying to hide a grin. "I'm not uncomfortable."

"I'm not either, but if your mum is, I'll switch rooms."

"It's fine. I'll sleep in my sleeping bag on the floor. I don't mind. She just doesn't want me to sleep in the same bed with you."

Severus watched her crawl into the bag on the floor and sighed to himself. "_What she doesn't know won't hurt her."_

Lily looked over at the window, pale moon light coming in through the thin curtains blowing in the gentle breeze coming through the crack. She felt a weird sensation in the pit of her stomach. Lily turned onto her back and looked at Severus. His back was turned to her but she could see his back moving up and down slightly, but awkwardly as if he was not breathing as well as he should.

She rolled back over onto her right side with a sigh. Closing her eyes, she heard him moan once. She turned to look over at him. He turned onto his back with his eyes closed. He eased his muscles. Lily sighed and turned back over. She summoned her ink, quill and journal over. Opening the book, she looked at the last entry she wrote.

_James asked me out the day we came home. I've been feeling more and more attracted to him lately. He's grown quite a bit this past year and has deflated his ego a lot. I think his father's death made him grow up. He's not as bad as I thought he was. I asked mum if it'd be okay to start dating James and she said that would be nice. I am happy to say that I know have my first boyfriend-once I tell him yes that is._

Lily sighed to herself and began to write in the book on the next blank page.

_Since I last wrote in here so much as happened. Severus showed up at my door quite injured. I wasn't sure what to think, but he appeared to be trying to warn me of danger so I felt I needed to help him. I couldn't let him just die. Now I don't know what to think anymore. Mum seems to be getting more and more sick by the day and says she won't see any more doctors because there is nothing they can do to help her. I don't know what's wrong, but her stomach has gotten a bit bigger though she's not really eating anything. If she didn't already go through menopause, I would think she was pregnant, but that's not possible. She gets paler and paler all the time it seems. She's always tired and sick. She is nauseous and vomiting and having stomach pains constantly. She says it's not to worry about, but she's not acting like herself either. She keeps talking about things like paperwork and insurance and what to do and what would happen if she passed away. It's very odd and making me worry about her even more._

_Anyway, back to Severus. I don't know what to think now that he told me what all happened to him. I just can't believe he was ready to die because of me. It shocks me still and I don't know why. I guess I just expected him to not care anymore and to be one of them, a Death Eater and join You-Know-Who and his anti-people like me and my family who are muggleborn and muggles. But apparently there's a prophecy stating someone with flaming hair born to muggles at the end of January in 1960 will bear a child who'll defeat him. I do have red hair, was born at the end of January in 1960 to muggle parents so I guess it could be me, but I don't want to believe it. I can't believe it. It just seems crazy to think I would have a child able to defeat someone so powerful. Still, I can't get over it. I can't believe that Severus of all people was willing to die before allowing me to be harmed by the very people he wanted to fit in with and all over a silly prophecy. How can I not forgive him? What happened before happened. It's over and done with. It's time to move forward and forgive. _

Lily shut the journals and put her ink and quill away. She curled up in her sleeping bag and drifted off to sleep.

Lily woke up the next morning to Severus lying on his back, one hand leisurely on his stomach over her quilt and the other under her pillow. She sighed to herself with a little smile as she rolled up the sleeping bag. She went to her closet and got out a t-shirt and some jeans, leaving Severus to continue resting.

She combed her wet hair as she entered her bedroom again. Severus was still asleep. Lily thought he looked content and peaceful for once and hoped to herself that if he was dreaming about anything, it would be something pleasant. As she sat down at her lily-white desk, she put up her journal and saw the letter she had started to James more than a week ago.

Lily glanced over the incomplete answer and sighed to herself. As she looked over at Severus and then back at the letter, her stomach twisted as if someone had tied a knot on it. The black ink of the letter seemed to run together and appeared smudged. She swallowed hard, folded the letter with a shaky hand and stuffed it back in the drawer of the desk with her journal. Her mother was not right about Severus. She was not.

Lily put on her makeup and fixed up her hair half up before leaving the bedroom.

_Two Days Later_

"Here's some ginger tea, mum." Lily handed her mother a cup of tea and sat down at the table with her.

"Thanks, dear." She took a couple sips and put it down with a groan. "So, how's Severus been? I've seen him moving around much more easy."

"He's still in some pain and it's hard for him to walk much, but he's getting better slowly."

Lily's mother took another sip of the tea. "So, did you go ahead and write to James or are you going to forget about it?"

Lily let out a huff. "I said I'd do it when he got back."

"Three weeks?"

Lily crossed her arms. "Why are you pushing this so hard? Why do you want me with James so much?"

Lily's mother raised an eyebrow. "I'm not pushing. You said you would write to him, didn't you? It only seems polite to give a response one way or the other."

"And I'll give him one...when he gets back."

"So, what all have you and Severus been talking about?"

Lily swallowed her sip of tea hard. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Her mother cleared her throat and set the cup down. "You just seem much more cordial and friendly with each other lately."

"Well, why shouldn't I be?"

"You forgive him for what he called you now?"

Lily nodded. "Of course. He nearly died trying to save my life. He was going to die rather than let them harm me. How can I not forgive him when he did that?"

Lily's mother coughed, choking a bit on her tea. She forced the cup back on its plate with a loud clink. "He did what?"

"Well, you know...he did." Lily stirred her tea with a spoon.

"Is that what he told you?"

"No, but it's what he did for me. He doesn't even see it as that. He just said that he couldn't let his best friend-well, former best friend be harmed like that-be sought after-marked for death by him. I mean You-Know-Who."

"Best friend? You weren't friends then?"

"No, but we were and he actually apologized and told me he was a lousy friend to me and was sorry about the word and even what it meant to me. I forgive him. How can I not?"

Lily's mother cleared her throat again and sighed. "So, he about died trying to save your life like a knight in shining armour or prince charming, huh?"

Lily shook her head and scoffed. "That's the thing though. He wasn't trying to do that. That's not him. He's not that type of person. Severus as a knight." Lily laughed to herself at the mental image. It did not fit him at all. "He just wanted to-he couldn't allow me to be harmed and killed by them. He actually showed his bravery and character by that act and didn't know it. He just-he risked his life without a thought of himself. But a knight? No. A friend? Absolutely. I would've done the same in a reverse."

"You know, dear, if that's true then I understand your confusion."

Lily "What confusion?"

"About what to do regarding James Potter."

"What do you mean? I'm not confused." Lily let out a huff at her mother's expression. "I'm not confused."

Lily's mother shook her head. "You aren't, huh?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. I wish you'd let this go. I'm going to send a letter to James in a couple weeks when he gets home."

"You like him."

"Yes, I do like James."

"No, dear. You like Severus."

Lily gave her mother a blank stare in shock. "What? Are you crazy? I-I don't. That's not-I don't-not like that."

"Yes, you do, but you don't want to admit it. You like what he did for you. You like him. It's okay."

Lily choked on her sip of tea."No-as a friend I do, yes, but not as a lover. Mum, that's-that's crazy."

"Oh? You don't feel anything toward Severus? Not even a little when he risked his life because he loves and cares about you? I don't buy that for a moment. It's okay to feel attraction toward Severus, sweetie. It's not like I would say no to that relationship either. You just need to sort out your thoughts before you give James an answer."

"But I'm not-I don't-I'm not-I'm not attracted to him. That's just silly."

"Why?"

"I don't know-it just is. Can we talk about something else?"

"No. I want to talk about this. It's important."

Lily let out a huff. "Why? What's important about it? Nothing. What's more important is why you won't see a doctor about your stomach?"

"My stomach is fine. A doctor can't do a thing for me." Her mother cleared her throat, holding her cup. "So, Severus. He likes you."

"I guess so. As a friend."

"It seems quite bold of him to be willing to die for just an old friend, doesn't it?"

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't he? I'd try to help him too."

"Well, it's quite a stretch that he did it just because he thinks of you as an old friend. Possible, yes, but is it also possible that he has a thing for you?"

"No." She answered quickly.

"James has had a thing for you for couple years, right? That's what you told me."

Lily shrugged. "Yeah, so?"

"And Severus and James have had some run-ins and don't like each other. Do they fight with each other?"

Lily shrugged again. "They used to fight. They don't anymore that I know of."

"But you didn't really like James, but he liked you a lot. Severus was your best friend. I've always felt Severus had a thing for you too."

"Yeah, and? I don't understand what you're trying to say. Severus didn't have a thing for me."

Her mother shook her head. "Sweetie, I love you, but you are a bit naive."

Lily was taken aback. "What?"

"I think Severus does have a bit of a, shall I say, crush on you. It's quite obvious to me."

"That's ridiculous."

"Really? Why?"

"Because-because we're just friends. That's all."

"And friends of the opposite gender can't like each other as more than friends ever?"

Lily frowned and let out a heavy huff.

"Look, honey, all I'm saying is that if Severus and James both like you and knew the other liked you too, I could see some jealousy issues pop up and that could be a big reason why James and Severus don't like each other. Severus probably feels James has a better chance with you and James probably felt like you liked Severus more because you were friends before last year."

"James asked me out. He made his feelings obvious. Severus never told me he liked me or showed me he did so that's silly."

"You've known Severus for several years, Lily. Even I know that he's not an emotional person at all. If he didn't know you liked him back, he wouldn't dare tell you he liked you and wanted to be more than friends. He wouldn't have wanted to tell you that. You know Severus. You know he's not the type to be so open about something so personal."

Lily sunk back in her chair. "You think he actually does like me? As more than a friend? You think that's why he nearly died to try and-to try and help me?"

Her mother sighed. "You want me to make you feel better about your dilemma or do you want the truth?"

Lily felt her heart drop into her stomach. "What am I going to do?"

"Regarding Severus or James or both?"

Lily looked at her mother. "I don't know." She sighed. "I don't know what to think anymore."

"About dating James because you are starting to like Severus?"

Lily sat up straighter. "I didn't say that."

"Doesn't mean anything. I think it's what you mean."

Lily folded her arms under her breasts and looked up at the ceiling for a moment. "You can't read my mind. I hate when you try."

"No, but I know a little about my own child. Just think about your own feelings and whether they are real or in the moment before you make any decisions."

Lily sighed to herself. "I'm going to go-I think I'll go start on some homework."

_A Week Later_

Severus woke up to something pressing on his leg. He looked down to see Lily's fluffy cat staring at him with her big, blue eyes while she sat on his leg. He let out a huff.

"Get off, stupid cat." He tried to shake the cat off of his leg, but that only caused the cat's hair to stand up on end. The cat sunk its claws into Severus's leg in fear.

Severus made a grab for the cat, picking him up from under the belly. Slowly, he scooted to the edge of the bed. As he tried to get to his feet, his left foot got caught in the quilt and he lost his balance. The cat screeched in terror as Severus tried to catch himself from a fall. Boris jumped out of Severus arm and bolted out of Lily's bedroom.

"What-what happened?"

Severus turned to see Lily getting to her feet, her dark red hair ruffled up on the right side. "Nothing."

"What'd you do to Boris?"

"Nothing. I just want him off the bed."

"You scared the poor thing to death." She smiled.

Severus felt a tiny grin forming on his lips as he looked at her. "Not on purpose."

Lily looked at him and smiled even wider. "You're standing on your own. Slightly off balance, but looks like you're doing better."

Severus nodded. "I think I'll come down for breakfast today."

Lily shook her head. "Don't push yourself."

"I'm not. It's silly to have you all bring stuff up when I am perfectly capable of coming down." He grabbed the crutches by the bed, placing them under his arms. "I'm not sure why wizards have plain ol' crutches. You'd think they'd have something else when you struggle to get around."

Lily shook her head as she got a shirt out of her closet. "Because the point to get you back on your feet. You need to walk. It's bad for your blood if you don't or something. Wizard crutches are better. They help you get back to normal faster than muggle ones. They're, how did the healers put it? Oh, that's right, therapeutic."

Severus let out a small huff. "I'll be in the bathroom." He limped out of the room.

Lily sighed to herself, a little smile creeping onto her lips as she watched him leave her bedroom.

Severus limped down the stairs and sat down at the table. Lily's mother turned to him.

"Decided to come down and eat today?"

"I'm doing better. Seemed silly to make you bring me food."

Severus looked at Lily's mother as she placed some bacon on the table. He really had not seen her much since he arrived. She would check on him a couple times a day, but Lily was the one who would give him food and something to drink and stuff. Lily's mother looked pasty and her skin had a yellowish tent to it. He felt a bit shocked to see her like that. She looked worse than he remembered her ever looking.

Lily cleared her throat from across the table. "Aren't you going to sit down and eat, mum?"

Lily's mother shook her head. "I'm not hungry, dear. You two eat."

"Is your stomach hurting again?"

"I'm fine."

"Mum-"

"Don't worry about me. You'll be fine."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "What did the doctor say? Certainly he doesn't think you are well."

"Lily, I told you. The doctors can't do anything for me."

Severus saw Lily huff to herself.

"Look, I don't want you to worry over me. I'll be just fine and so will you." Her mother put some toast and jam down on the table. "You know, when you were little you loved boysenberry jam."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Jam. You liked boysenberry jam."

Lily twisted her mouth slightly and scratched har hair above her forehead. "No, that's Petunia. I never liked it. Mum, are you sure you're okay?"

"I said I'm fine, Lily. I just forgot who liked it. Your father always liked it too. He should eat some. Where is he?"

Lily looked at Severus, who was looking at her mother in a bit of shock.

"Mum, I think I should call the doctor."

"Why would you do that?"

Lily raised an eyebrow, mentally scatching her mind in her confusion. "Because you're not-you're acting really odd."

Lily's mother brushed her blonde hair back and gaped at Lily. "What do you mean?"

"You just asked where dad was. He died more than a year ago."

"Oh, right. I knew that. I'm just tired. I think I'll go lie down for a bit." She left the room and went to lie down on the couch.

Severus said nothing and ate a few bites of bacon.

"She's going crazy. I don't know what's wrong with her. She's in pain all the time, has basically stopped eating and just looks worse and worse, but she keeps saying she'll be just fine and so will I. I don't understand why she won't go to the doctor. She just says they can't help her and I don't get it."

Severus shrugged. "She's a grown woman. You can't make her go to the doctor."

"No, but it's crazy that she won't even try to get help."

"She'll be fine. I'm sure she would go to the doctor if she had a serious concern. Muggle doctors can only do so much though. They aren't like healers."

Lily stabbed her toast with her fork, causing it to tear slightly and crumble. Glancing over at her mother just made it worse. Her mother had her hand on her abdomen, cringing a little and breathing out like it something was painful. Lily huffed to herself in frustration and mumbled to herself. "Stubborn, she is. Stubborn and ridiculous. She's needs help."


	7. Chapter 7: Terrible Two Days

_**A/N: **I posted this chapter, but I'm still not sure about this story. I'm just not sure if I like it. I don't think it's coming out as well as I'd like. And yes, I do know how to revise chapters with the replace button and do it off and on. However, when I make large changes or redo more than half of a chapter, I prefer to re-upload so my readers know that it's very different from before and they may want to read the newest version. I'd appreciate reviews to be about the chapter with thoughts, praise, critique, etc. If you have something outside of that, I'd prefer a PM to keep the review pages cleaner. Thanks and I hope you enjoy this chapter. It's a bit different from the first chapter, but if you read the original postings, you won't read much different from before. _

Thanks to **Gyoro and Ururun, TheAngelofIego, Flame55, Neo-Digi, KraZiiePyrozHavemoreFun** and **EmD23** for reviews

* * *

><p><em><strong>Broken Wings<strong>_

**Chapter Seven: Terrible Two Days**

_Three Days Later_

Severus hobbled into the kitchen. "You need any help?"

Lily looked at him. "Don't worry about it. Mum just hasn't been able to cook lately. I need to see if she's up yet."

"I'll do it."

"Don't be silly, your foot is still healing and you still have a little limp."

"I want to go up and get my wand. I left it on the nightstand."

"At least the crutches are helping. Sorry I couldn't fix all the burns on your legs as well as I wanted, but I didn't know what all dark curses you were hit with."

"At least it's being fixed and that's all that matters. They're healing slowly." He went to the stairs and tottered up them, taking one step at a time.

Severus knocked on the master bedroom door. "Mrs. Evans? Are you awake?" He heard someone moan. Severus leaned on his crutch and opened the door to the bedroom. Lily's mother was in covered in a cold sweat, holding her stomach while lying on her queen sized bed. "Mrs. Evans? Are you okay?"

She looked up at him and grimaced in pain. "I need-doctor."

"You want a doctor?"

"Yes." She nodded and closed her eyes. "Doctor. Hospital."

Severus nodded. "You want us to take you to the hospital?"

"No. Call hospital."

"You want us to call the hospital?" He nodded. "We can do that. Let me get my wand and get Lily and we'll phone an ambulance. Is that what you want?"

"It's not what I want." She let out a heavy breath. "It's what I need. Everything's breaking up-falling apart. Need help. Please. Can't leave her yet-I can't. She's not done-need to wait until she goes back."

Severus raised an eyebrow. "I'll get the help. I'll call the hospital." He hurried out of the room on the crutches and to Lily's bedroom, snatched his wand and dashed down the stairs.

"Lily! Lily!"

Lily came running out of the kitchen. "What?"

"It's your mum. She wants us to call for an ambulance."

"What? What's wrong?"

"Something with her stomach. She's really sick."

Lily felt a wave of panic wash over her. "Call for one for me. I'm going to see what I can do to help her. Phone's in the kitchen."

Severus nodded and made fast movements toward the telephone.

Lily ran upstairs. "Mum! Mum!" She ran into her mother's bedroom and saw her mum's head in a bucket. Lily cringed at the sound of her mother getting sick. "I'll get you something-maybe something to calm your stomach or a drink? You want some ginger ale?" Lily ran back downstairs and to the kitchen.

Severus was on the phone. "She's got really bad stomach pains."

"She's vomiting again too. I'm getting her some ginger ale to sooth her stomach."

"She's apparently vomiting too. She looks really bad."

Lily poured some ginger ale over some ice in a glass. "Are they on their way?"

Severus nodded. "Yes."

Lily went back up to her mother to try and calm her down and Severus waited by the door, sitting at the bottom of the stairs. He could hear Lily and her mother talking.

"Remember what I said-about the paperwork."

"Mum, stop talking about funeral plans. You're fine. You're going to fine. An ambulance is coming. You're going to be okay."

"I'm afraid it's a complication."

"Of what?"

"I told you. I told you things aren't good for me right now. I know I haven't been-what's the word? Forthcoming? I think that's it. I haven't been very forthcoming about my health. I just didn't want you to worry about me. I just couldn't-I don't want to leave yet. I wanted to see you graduate from school and maybe get married and see if I have any grandchildren."

"Of course you'll see them. You will. Stop talking like this-like you're dying. You're not."

Lily watched her mother nod. "I didn't want to tell you. I couldn't tell you-it was breaking my heart and I just couldn't do it-couldn't hurt you more, but knew I had to tell you at some point."

"Tell me what." Her voice trembled slightly.

"That I am-I'm at the end-stage. They tried to stop it-gave me meds. They didn't help it and I was too far along to stop it. They can't do anything else."

"What are you saying?"

"I have cancer. Ovarian cancer."

"What? No. You never said"

"I know. It came in October. I found out then and it was spread already, but they tried the meds. They tried them and it did not work. It came back in March and it was too far to fix it. Said I probably had a few months. I wanted to wait-to wait-to hope to wait until-until you got back to school safe and sound before-before it took my life. This may be it."

"What do you mean? They can fix this. You can last longer. You can't leave-you can't die. If you die-I don't-there's no one."

"You can stay here until the end of the summer and you can go back to school. Petunia-she'll sell the house probably, but you'll be done and you can find a job-a place to live. I love you. You're a brave and wonderful young woman. I raised a great daughter. You'll be just fine without me. You don't need me."

Lily shook her head. "No. I do. Don't. Please." She felt a warm tear roll down her cheek.

"I love you."

Lily let out a sob. "I love you too, but you'll be fine. Don't worry. We're getting you help."

The ambulance arrived a couple minutes. Severus opened the door after putting on a fake cast to look like he had a broken leg and not one just sore from all the curses and burns on his legs that were not all cleared up yet.

"She's upstairs."

They headed up the stairs with a stretcher. Severus stood out of the way. Lily came down, her eyes red and glossy. They carried Lily's mother down the stairs and out to the ambulance. Many of the neighbours were peering out.

"We'll meet you at the hospital, Mum." Lily stepped back from the vehicle and they shut the doors and took off.

Severus put his hand on her shoulder. "Let's get to the hospital and see if everything is okay."

They walked up the road to the park, staying out of sight of a family playing there to apparate. They went into the emergency room.

"Can I help you two?"

"Oh, um-we're waiting. My mum is arriving in an ambulance."

The hefty sandy haired woman at the desk nodded. Lily sat down in one of th gray chairs in the waiting room and put her hands to her forehead. Severus sat beside of her.

"I didn't turn off the stove." She started to panic. "I left it on. The house is going to burn down now and then I won't-"

"Calm down" Severus interjected. "I turned off for you when I got off the phone. It's fine. The house is fine."

They waited for almost an hour before someone finally came out to talk to them with Lily spending about 45 minutes of that time pacing the waiting room.

"You're Mrs. Evans' daughter?" The man had a face mask down at his neck and his brown eyes gazed at her.

Lily nodded.

"Come with me."

Lily took a deep breath and followed the man into a room. He took his scrub cap off, revealing thick, curly brown hair.

"We worked on your mother. She had a bowel obstruction."

"Oh." Lily sighed with relief. "So she's fine. You fixed it."

The man looked grave and Lily choked.

"But she's okay, right?"

"She waited too long. Her intestines ruptured."

"What does that mean?"

"She had a sepsis infection. It was too late to stop it."

"What are you saying? She's dying?"

"We tried our best, but we couldn't save her."

Lily felt like someone had rammed a cauldron into her stomach, knocking the wind out of her. "You-you're saying she's already-she's gone? No. She's not. I just talked to her an hour ago. She's fine. She has to be fine."

The man looked sympathetic. "I'm very sorry."

He spoke to her a bit longer, but Lily only half heard him. She left the room, staring blankly at pale yellow walls and blue waves of wallpaper wrapping the top of the walls of the waiting area. Severus got to his feet and hobbled over to her on his crutches.

"What? What'd they say?"

Lily's lip trembled. "She-she-they couldn't"

Severus choked and looked at the small white tiles he was standing on. "She passed away."

Lily let out a sob. "I want to go-I want to go home. I have to-I have to make-plans-arrangements."

Severus nodded. "Okay. Let's go home."

He walked out with her and they apparated to her backyard. Lily walked into the house in a daze. She looked at the half cooked bacon sitting in the pan and the now stale slices of bread sitting out to be toasted. She slumped onto the couch in the living room. Severus was not sure what to do or say so he just sat down beside of her.

The house was eerily silent as they sat. The only noises were the occasional person outside talking and chirping birds. Lily burst into tears. Severus uneasily touched her back. Lily turned to him and buried her face in his shirt. He held her in his arms despite the uneasy feeling and awkwardness about it. He certainly wasn't going to complain and savoured the moment, knowing that her life was going to be really awful the next couple of days.

0o0o0o

Lily wiped her eyes, looking over at the egg-shell white lace curtains blowing slightly under the vent. "I need-I have to call Petunia and tell her. I have to let her know."

Severus watched her hurry to her feet and head out of the living room to the kitchen. Severus looked down at his shirt that was a bit damp from her tears. He sighed and got to his feet and hobbled into the kitchen. Lily had the white phone in her hand, dialling into the machine. Severus leaned against the light tan countertop.

"Hello?" Someone spoke at the other end of the line.

Lily choked, but could not speak.

"Hello?" Someone said again, getting annoyed.

"Petunia." Lily squeaked out.

"Oh, it's you. What do you want? Don't you people talk by owls or something weird? I don't know why- "

"Petunia, it's mum." Lily interrupted.

"You're not mum."

Lily let out a sob. "Mum's sick-was sick."

"So? Give her some of that stomach medicine. She'll be fine. She always has stomach issues."

Lily caught a sob in her throat. "She had us-she left in an-in an ambulance. They took her to the hospital earlier."

"Look, Lily, Mum is fine. She's a little sick, but she told me she'd be fine. It's just some of the medicine they gave her for her cancer, that's all."

Lily's eyes got wide. "Cancer? Wait-what? You knew? How?"

"She got it last October. They gave her some medicine and she started to get better. She has a relapse of it a couple months ago, but they gave her more medicine. She'll be fine."

Lily shook off the shock that her sister knew about the cancer. "No."

"No what?" Petunia huffed into the phone.

"They couldn't" Lily felt her lip tremble and let out another sob. "They tried to-she was-the cancer and she-it" Lily burst into tears again.

Severus took the phone from Lily.

"Cut it out, Lily! This isn't funny! Let me talk to mum!" Petunia yelled into Severus's ear, causing him to move the phone away before he went temporarily deaf.

"Petunia."

"Who's this?" Petunia snapped.

"Your favourite wizard."

"Oh, you. Lily's second boyfriend since she can't have just one guy pinning for her-"

Severus rolled his eyes. "Your mum went to the hospital in terrible pain this morning. She had a bowel obstruction. They said it was caused from her cancer. Her intestines ruptured leading to infection and they couldn't stop it." He looked over at Lily, who was fixing napkins neatly into the holder, before speaking again. "She passed away about an hour ago."

"You think this is funny, you freaks! Don't joke about someone dying!"

Severus put the phone back to his ear after removing it to spare him from Petunia's screeching. "Fine. Go to the hospital and ask for your mum if you won't believe us."

"You did something to her, didn't you? You did!"

Severus scoffed. "I did nothing of the sort. Lily wanted to tell you what happened herself. She says your mum had a will and already made her funeral arrangements. Listen, Lily doesn't want to talk right now so I'm hanging up the phone." Severus hung up, ignoring Petunia's rant at the other end about him harming her mother and messing with Lily's head.

"There. Now she knows."

Lily stopped rearranging the napkins and looked up at him. "But she thinks you're lying-that we're lying."

"Nah. I think she does believe us, but she doesn't want to believe what happened." Severus watched Lily roll a coin on the table. Her eyes were red and puffy and still wet with tears.

Lily nodded, wiping her damp eyes with her thumbs. "I've got to get that paperwork."

Severus leaned against his crutch to hold himself steady, his hip aching a little. "I can help if you want. I can try anyway."

"Why?" She looked back at him as she headed out of the kitchen. "Why would you want to help, I mean?"

"It doesn't seem fair to make you do it all alone."

Lily sighed. "It's up in her room. In the closet."

Severus followed her up and into her mother's bedroom. He watched Lily turn on the light. The bed was still unmade with a bit of an indention on the pillow, making being in the room a little uncomfortable knowing the bed would not be occupied by Lily's mother anymore.

Lily choked at the sight of the bed. She took a deep breath and walked past the bed to the closet. The dark oak door squeaked as she slid it open. She scanned the closet with her eyes for a moment before spotting the deep tan safe box on the top shelf. Summoning it down, she scanned the clothing in the closet, noting the neatness of the items hung up.

"I'm going to have to-I'll have to go through her stuff."

"Don't push it. It's difficult enough."

Lily shook her head. "No, we've only got a couple weeks until we go back so I'll have to go through it soon."

"I'm not going back." Severus watched her sigh at his response.

"I am, I guess." She shut her eyes. "Let's take this downstairs to go through it all."

Severus looked down at the carpeted stairs and took one step at a time back down. Lily followed behind, which made the trip down a slow one, but also made her glad she was not in his position.

Lily unlocked the box as she sat down at the kitchen table. She grabbed a handful of papers and they began to sort through them. Lily spent the rest of the day making phone calls. Severus ordered some take away for them for dinner.

"You can stay here as long as you want. Until the house is sold even. If you want."

Severus nodded as Lily sorted through photos of her mother. "Whatever you are comfortable with."

Lily looked up from the pictures. "It's fine. I kind of hope you stay-for awhile."

"I understand. You don't want to be alone in the house."

Lily shrugged. "Not really. Especially since I'm a wanted witch now."

"That's my fault."

Lily put a photo down. "Why do you think that?"

"If he hadn't seen my memories-hadn't gotten into my head-he wouldn't have known or guessed it could be you."

Lily rolled her eyes to his surprise. "You can't believe that. He wouldn't have picked me out that fast that I was the one for the prophecy from some images. I think he already knew."

"They didn't know the connection between you and me until then. He didn't know. Once they realized what you looked like, it confirmed to them that you were the one" Severus's eyes got wide.

"What? What is it?"

"They used me."

"What?" She raised an eyebrow.

"It all makes sense now. You-Know-Who doesn't ask for new recruits to come to a real meeting. They already knew and he knew that I knew you and wanted to have confirmation. He used my memories to try and picture you-see you-try to find your location." Severus felt his breathing suddenly constrict. "They saw your house. Just the inside mostly, but they saw it. I was at your house in some of the memories they pulled."

Lily had a look of horror on her face. "No, they don't know. They'd have shown up if they knew where it was."

"They know where I live. It's why I won't go home. They know you are somewhere close."

Lily choked. "You think we should be ready?"

"Ready?" He raised an eyebrow.

"To run. I'm not sitting here if they arrive. I'm only 17. I still want to live my life." She scoffed. "Besides, I'm still not convinced it's actually me that the prophecy means."

Severus nodded. "I don't really have anything, but if you want to be prepared to run, you should. They are after you, not me. They don't know where you are at this point, but they'll find out."

Lily said nothing for a moment. "I know. That's what I'm concerned about."

He looked up at the clock. "It's almost midnight. We should get to bed."

Lily sighed. "This photo will work." She put the other photos back in the box.

Severus got to his feet. "Come on. We should get some sleep."

Lily nodded. "Yeah. Sleep."

He put his hand on her shoulder. "You need some sleep. We both do. It's been a very long day."

"Tomorrow won't be any better."

Severus sighed to himself. "It'll get better. I'm going upstairs and to bed." He hobbled up the stairs.

Lily cleaned up all the papers and finally went up to bed. Severus was sleeping in her bed. She crawled into her sleeping bag and looked at the dark room. She wasn't sure what time she finally fell asleep, but was woken up by Severus the next morning.

She groaned, putting the pillow over her head.

"You are going to have company today."

Lily removed her head from under her pillow and looked up at him. "What?"

"Your sister called. She's on her way up here. Her husband is coming too."

Lily huffed. "Why?"

"Something about going to the funeral home to get stuff in order."

Lily put her head back down and let out a huff. "Great."

"They'll be here in less than a hour. I think she called from a phone booth. I'll be downstairs."

Lily forced herself to get up, exhaustion still plaguing her. She hurried to shower and get dressed. Severus answered the door while Lily cleaned up the kitchen.

"You're still here?" Petunia scoffed, looking disgusted at the sight of him.

"Of course. You aren't here so I have no reason to leave."

"Who's he?" A short, tubby man without much of a neck asked.

"One of Lily's freaky friends." Petunia answered coolly.

Vernon looked over him. "Her boyfriend?"

"Not officially, but she probably has a thing for him too." Petunia smirked. "Or at least he hopes she does."

Vernon sneered at Severus, who gave a glare back. He pushed Severus aside suddenly and they entered the house. Severus grabbed for his wand, but stopped short of pulling it out of his pocket. He grumbled as he hobbled into the kitchen after them.

"What happened to your boyfriend?" Vernon asked, plopping his large body on the chair too small for buttock. Lily glared at him from the kitchen as she put up the last dish. She turned to Petunia.

"When are we leaving? I want to get this over with." Lily spoke with a huff.

"As soon as you're finally ready."

"I'm ready. Let's get this done. I have other things I need to do today."

Lily turned to Severus, who had positioned himself on the couch in the living room, as she headed out the door. "We'll be back in a couple hours."

"I'll be fine. I'll make some lunch in a bit."

Lily nodded. "Okay, then." She sighed. "See you in a bit."

He watched her walk to and out the front door and felt a bit sorry for her having to spend the next couple hours with her sister and brother-in-law. Needless to say, he did not care for the man at this point and he barely knew the guy. Severus turned on the telly to keep busy.

_Two Days Later_

"Everything will be fine, dear." A middle-aged woman spoke, patting Lily's shoulder as she left the house. "You call and let me know if you need anything at all, understand?"

Lily smiled. "Thanks, Mrs. Patterson. I'll be fine. I've got a friend here with me. They agreed to stay here and keep me company for now."

"I'm glad to hear that, but you still let me know. Richard and I are next door and will be happy to be of assistance to you."

"I'll let you know if I need anything."

The woman left and Lily closed the door behind her. She leaned back against the door and let out a huff for a moment before heading back to the kitchen.

Petunia met her at the corner of the kitchen, causing her to gasp and jump in surprise. She grabbed at her chest and frowned at her sister. "Don't do that!" She snapped.

"Oh, don't do that? Why didn't you tell her, huh?" Petunia's eyes were accusing.

Lily let out a light huff. "Tell who what?"

Petunia crossed her arms over her chest. "Mrs. Patterson. Telling her you have a friend over."

Lily grabbed the casseroles and moved them into the refrigerator. "I do." She summoned more of the perishable food to the fridge.

"You didn't bother to tell her the friend was a young man."

Lily shut the door and turned back to her sister who was standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. "What's the big deal? The point was to tell her I'm not alone in this house."

"You're alone with a young man your age."

Lily rolled her eyes and conjured up a new bread box. "It's not like that, Petunia. We are not dating and we are just friends." She put the new loaf of bread in the box.

"Oh, really? Is he still sleeping in your bed?"

"Yes, but I'm not in it with him." Lily pointed to the rest of the stuff on the counter. "You can take the rest. We don't need that much food with just us."

"I don't need it. We can buy our own."

Lily frowned. "It's what people do when someone passes. They give food so those grieving don't have to cook. You can take the rest of it because we can't eat all of it before it goes rancid." Lily huffed at her sister, who was now glaring at her. "Just take it and show the people who gave it to us you appreciate what they did."

Petunia scoffed. "You're giving me tips on how to be nice?"

"No, I just-"

Petunia scoffed again at her and turned on her heel to go to the living room. "Are you ready to go back home, Vernon?"

"Yes. Let's head on home. We have a few hours drive ahead of us as it is."

Petunia grabbed some of the food, glaring intensely at Lily. "This food is for us to take from our normal neighbours."

Vernon glanced over the food items greedily. "Looks good to me. You won't have to make any dinner the next couple of days."

Lily watched them exit the kitchen with the food, clearing off the granite counter.

Petunia stood in the doorway once everything was in the car. "I'll be back in a couple weeks to go through the stuff."

"Yes, but I'm going through stuff. Anything I don't want I'll leave for you to look through on your own or give away." Lily folded her arms.

Petunia stared at her a minute before heaving a heavy, frustrated sigh. "Fine."

"Fine. Have a safe trip home." She watched them get into their small vehicle with her wondering how Vernon managed to fit himself into the car at all. The car backed out of the driveway and Lily breathed a sigh of relief as she closed the door.


	8. Chapter 8: Fight or Flight

_Thanks to __**Gyoro and Ururun, Tlkatch, KraZiiePyrozHavemoreFun,**__ and __**Saramagician**__ for the reviews._

_A/N: Finished up some of my work and decided to take another study break to finally revise and edit this chapter. Still not sure how much I like this story, but apparently some of my readers do so I'll keep going. It's not super very long. No more than fifteen or so chapters. Thanks for reading._

_*Should mention that I added an extra scene to chapter four and fixed the currency. I was finally able to find it in the insert symbols box. It was right in front of me the whole time. Well, I never claimed to be a genius. Not even close. I'll admit to being a bit absentminded and easily distracted. _

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><p><strong><em>Broken Wings<em>**

**Chapter Eight: Fight or Flight**

Lily wiped at her brow. "Looks like we finished up the downstairs now." She put her hands on her hips, trying to catch her breath. "The house is done." She looked at all the boxes and tagged furniture.

Severus sat down, catching his breath. "And your sister is supposed to come next week to look through the stuff, right? To take her stuff out and move the rest?"

Lily nodded and sat on stairs by the front door.

It had taken them an entire week to clean up the house and pack things into boxes. Lily had enjoyed most of it, besides cleaning her parents' bedroom. Severus had taken pity on her and cleaned most of it after she broke down and could not finish. She had ended up cleaning the bathroom out completely instead. Besides that incident, they worked together to clean up and clean out. What surprised her was that they did not really argue at all while cleaning.

"I appreciate all your help. I really do. I couldn't have done it without you."

Severus shrugged. "You could have, it just would have taken you forever. But it wasn't any trouble. Considering what all you've done to help me and given me a place to stay, it was the least I could do."

Lily shook her head. "No. Helping you and giving you a safe place to stay after what you did for me was the least I could do. After all, what are friends for?"

Severus grinned at her for a moment and Lily smiled back.

"So," Lily looked away from his gaze and cleared her throat. "You-uh-you want something to eat."

"Sure. Have any plans for dinner?"

Lily got to her feet. "No. I think we have some pasta. Does that sound okay?"

"Fine with me." Severus followed Lily into the kitchen with a slight limp.

_That night_

Lily turned onto her back, looking at the white ceiling in the dark room. She turned over to see Severus sleeping. She pulled back the sleeping bag, grabbed her pillow and got to her feet. Hoping not to wake him, she set her pillow on her bed beside of him and slowly pulled back the covers. He stirred, moving slightly.

Lily let out a breath and put her knee on the bed, causing it to sink slightly. Severus jumped awake.

"Huh? What?" He turned to see Lily against the bed. She looked startled. "What is it?"

She sighed and sat on the bed. "I can't sleep."

Severus sat up, letting his eyes adjust to the dark. Lily laid her head down on her pillow. Severus laid back down, propping his head up with his right hand.

"It's too quiet."

Severus sighed. "You miss her."

Lily shrugged. "I don't have any family left, except Petunia. It's hard to think that-to know you're alone."

"You've got lots of friends. You're not alone. I have my parents, but they aren't much family."

Lily pulled the covers tight around her. "Sorry. I guess you aren't any better off." She sighed. "I miss my bed."

"You want me to move to Petunia's old bed?"

Lily shook her head. "No. We'll just share for now. It's not like we're doing anything inappropriate." She turned over onto her back and over to her right side.

Severus removed his hand from his head and laid his head down. "If you're fine being in the same bed, I'm fine too. If you aren't comfortable, I'll move to Petunia's room."

"I'm fine. Night." She closed her eyes, tears blurring her vision. She let out a sob unintentionally, her throat clenching.

Severus heard her and uneasily put his hand on her shoulder. Lily felt his strong hand on her shoulder and sensed herself relaxing a little. With a light squeeze, her muscles went tense and her breathing got heavy and constricted. Her whole body surged and her stomach churned, but she did not believe she was going to throw up. It was a pleasant sensation.

"_You aren't alone completely."_ She reminded herself. Lily shut her eyes again and drifted into sleep with ease.

Severus watched her relax under his touch and wondered if maybe he was going to be the one uncomfortable with her in the same bed. He shook his head once.

"_Cut it out. Don't think about her that way. Just be nice. She's feeling upset and lonely right now. She'll be fine. She's not interested in you that way. She likes James Potter. She'll never fancy someone like you when she has someone like him. Rich and handsome and athletic and popular. You have none of that."_

He shut his eyes, still shocked that he still got the same butterflies in his stomach when around her. She attracted him, though she was unaware that he found her beautiful. The longer he stayed here, the stronger that attraction became and he was unsure if he could keep from her that he liked her as more than a friend forever.

Lily woke up to a jet-black room. She felt something on the shoulder and realized it was a hand. She started to panic and then remembered Severus had his hand on her shoulder before she fell asleep. The hand fell off of her in her panic and as she turned over, she saw Severus lying there, facing her and sound asleep.

She sighed to herself and Severus stirred beside of her. It comforted her to know he was lying there beside of her. Her mum would be ready to smack her silly if she could see her like this, but Lily did not care. He was safe beside of her and she would be safe with him here. She was glad he did not leave and had stayed with her during all this.

She watched him sleep peacefully, hardly making a sound. At least he didn't snore. She hoped she didn't either. He was not the most attractive person, but his looks never bothered her much. His hair was just naturally greasier than most. It was not like he didn't wash it. She knew he did. His teeth were a bit yellow, but hers weren't perfect either so she couldn't complain. His appearance was the same, but something about him had changed and she could not place her finger on it. Something had changed between them too, though she wanted to deny that her mother could be right about Severus.

Lily pulled back the covers and got up from the bed. Severus stirred again, clutching the covers tighter, curling up in her bed. She went over to the window and opened her curtains. Small droplets of water hit her window and streaked down the pane.

"Are you up already?"

Lily jumped and turned to the bed. Severus was propped up on the bed.

"No, I'm going back to bed. I just wanted to see outside. It's raining, so I'll probably go back to the store today. You want to come?"

Severus stifled a yawn and stretched his arms. "Sure. What else will I be doing?"

Lily smiled and tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear. She went back over to the bed and crawled back in beside of him. "You plan on going back home to at least let your parents know you're okay now?"

Severus shook his head, looking up at the ceiling. "Nah. They don't care. Unless you've finally grown sick of me and are trying to kick me out?"

Lily let out a light huff. "I don't want to kick you out. I like the company. Otherwise, I'd be alone in the house. Not that I'm happy about what happened or why you're here, but I do like the company right now." Lily laughed at herself. "I sound pathetic."

"No, you don't."

Lily nodded and a little smile emerged on her lips. As she watched him drift back into a slumber, her heart raced really fast. _"I'm just upset. Nothing is happening. I don't feel anything toward him. Nothing. None at all."_ She closed her eyes. _"You're just friends. That's all. Just friends."_

0o0o0o

Severus woke up to Lily sleeping soundly beside of him. The sun was barely due to arrive, so the room was still quite dark. Lily's cat, who was normally lying at the corner of the bed, was missing. Severus got to his feet slowly, hoping to not wake Lily. She didn't even stir. He left the bedroom and stopped at the sight of Boris in Petunia's room, looking out the window as he sat on the thin sill. As Severus walked toward the cat, he heard a sound behind him.

"What're you doing?"

He jumped nearly a foot in the air, figuring he almost had a heart attack. "Don't do that!"

"Sorry." Lily stated.

They looked back at Boris, who had not moved, except to cock his head. Suddenly, out of the silence except the pitter patter of rain on the roof and window, Boris jumped as if panicked and dove under the bed.

"What's the matter, Boris?"

Severus went over to the window. Through the rain drenched window pane, he peered out. He really didn't see anything until a shadow a light just up the road caught his eye. He leaned closer as Lily worked to get the cat out. As she pulled him out, Severus felt a sense of fear race through him, adrenaline pumping.

"Lily?"

"What?"

Severus saw more than one figure moving toward Lily's street. As they reached the sidewalk of the street ahead from Lily's house, he could see they were young men, draped in dark robes. One of them pointed right at Lily's home and Severus instantly recognized who was talking. "We have to go. They're coming this way!"

"Them? What?" Her eyes got wide. "You mean-"

Severus backed away from the window to stay out of sight. "Yes, get the stuff-let's get out of here now! We can apparate out, go!"

"What about the house? We're not even dressed?" Lily stated as her breathing became laboured, her adrenaline propelling through her body.

"Our lives are more important. Who cares about our clothes or this house, let's go!"

Lily and Severus hurried into Lily's bedroom. She put Boris in his cage and grabbed her trunk. Severus grabbed her other bag and stuffed her shrunken brook in the bag.

"Do we know where to go?" Lily asked.

"Far away. Anywhere you want. Let's just go." As Severus took her arm, he glanced at her. She glared into his eyes for a moment and smiled at him. Butterflies burst through his stomach and he could not stop a grin from forming on his face. Her touch was like a sparkplug.

The moment was shattered by a sudden blast downstairs. They gasped. Lily tightly wound her arm around Severus's and they were tunnelling out of the house.

Lily fell to the ground with Severus.

"That was quick thinking." Severus said, breathing hard.

"On your part." Lily looked down at her hand. "I got a splinter." She pulled it out with a cringe.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Anyway, the quick thinking was on your part. If you hadn't seen them, god only knows what might have happened."

Severus smirked. "Thank Boris. I got curious when he wasn't at my feet like normal."

Lily brushed off her gown as she got to her feet.

"Where are we?" Severus asked as he looked around the wooded pier.

"Somewhere I've been once before. Come on, let's go inside and get dressed."

Severus looked over the empty pier for a moment, the grayish-blue sea thrashing against the poles. The wind was heavy and as Severus hurried to catch up to Lily on the rain-slick deck.

The small building was empty when they entered.

"Come on, the loo's over there." She pointed to a toilet and sink just ahead.

After they had dressed and left the pier, Severus looked around the area.

"So, where do we go now?"

Lily sighed. "We find a hotel to stay at. I have some money. I may have to find a job or something so we can have enough money to keep up."

"How long do you plan on staying?"

Lily started up the street. "As long as we need to-until they find us. I doubt we'll be able to settle anywhere while You-Know-Who is alive with the fear of having to run always. Though I doubt they'll look here."

"Don't count on it. They won't stop until they find us."

Lily said nothing and continued up the hill. Severus sighed and followed her, glancing back down the hill at the sea.

The walk was silent until they reached a park. Lily dried off a bench and sat down.

"I can't go back." She said softly.

Severus set the trunk on the sidewalk. "No. We can't go back home."

"The house is supposed to be up for sale after next week. I hope they don't hurt the house or anything or anyone else or-or-anything at all there." Lily put her face in her hands, propped up on her legs. "I didn't tell Petunia I'm not there. I didn't tell my neighbours."

"Send them a letter. Don't say where you are, just say that you had an emergency or something and won't be back because school starts in a few weeks."

Lily shook her head. "No."

Severus raised an eyebrow. "No what?"

"I'm not-I can't-I can't go back. I don't think it's-it's not safe." Lily got off the bench. "No." She grabbed her cat's carrier and her bag. "I'm not going to school this year." She started to walk through the park. "I'm going to send Professor Dumbledore a letter tonight that I won't be going to school this year and why."

Severus put a hand on her shoulder, startling her. "I'm sorry, Lily."

Lily turned to him. "For what?"

"That you can't finish your education. I know that you liked school."

Lily shrugged and kept walking. "School's not as important as living to see tomorrow."

"But now you won't be able to see Potter." He spat out suddenly before he could stop himself. "I'm sure that disappoints you and him."

Lily nearly tripped over her own feet as she stopped. She turned around quickly. "What?"

"Nothing. Let's find a place to stay." He walked past her, letting out a deep breath.

"No, what did you mean? Seeing Potter? What makes you think I want to see him?"

Severus scoffed. "Oh, please. Everyone knows he fancies you. Like it's not obvious you fancy him back." He had to strain out the last sentence so as to not make it sound like he was angry with her.

Lily refrained from rolling her eyes. "I wish you and Potter would let whatever grudge you two have against each other go."

"Kinda hard to forget someone like that-who likes to make others lives hell."

Lily did roll her eyes this time. "That's my point. It's summer, you're far from him or any of the Marauders and you still can't let it go."

Severus scoffed again. "Forget it. Let's just find a place to stay."

Lily sighed to herself and caught up with him just as they exited the park.

Severus pointed left. "That way. It says there's a hotel just ahead, about a half mile."

The rest of the walk was mostly quiet between them. The town was growing alive now that the sun had risen, refusing to cater to their silence.

When they arrived at the hotel, Lily glanced at Severus. "I'll do the talking. Just play along."

Severus shrugged. "Fine."

Lily set her cat's carrier down, placing the bag in front of it in the alley. She placed a charm on it so that someone would find themselves with a snake if they snatched her bag or cat.

Lily entered the building with Severus behind her, dragging her trunk. A lady with wispy gray hair and thick rimmed glasses with too much blue eye shadow glimpsed up and put up a finger to tell Lily to wait a minute while she was on the phone.

After about five minutes, she hung up.

"How can I help you today?"

"Do you have a room for the night?"

"Yes, we do. Name please?"

"Petunia Dursley and this is my husband, Vernon."

"Do you have any ID?"

Lily took out her school ID and wand and changed the names. She handed the lady the card. Severus did the same to his before handing it over.

"Would you like a double or an en-suite?"

"What's the cheapest?" Lily asked.

"The double."

"Then that's what we'll take."

The lady nodded. "That'll be £10."

"Okay. You will be on the third floor in room six. Here's your key. We hope you have a pleasant stay."

"Thank you." Lily took the key and left the office. They went into the hotel and walked up the smoky gray carpeted stairs to their room. She opened the door.

Severus's eyes got wide. "Wow. This is nice."

Lily glanced around, closing the door back. "There's only one bed. I shouldn't have said we were married."

"I thought double meant two beds. I guess it just meant a large bed. But I'll sleep on the floor if you want."

"No, that's ridiculous. It's a large bed. We'll just-stay on separate sides."

"We can turn it into two if you want?" Severus opened up the curtains to the bedroom.

Lily let her cat out of the cage. "No. Don't worry about it. I mean, unless you aren't comfortable or something. If you are-I mean, we can make them into two small beds."

Severus shrugged. He looked out the window. "This is a nice window. I've never seen one so big."

Lily felt goose bumps run up her arms and her heart thumped faster than normal. "I-I'm going to go see what they have to eat. You um-you want me to bring you anything up-bring anything back up here-or do you want to come or-"

Severus turned to her. "Sure. I mean-sure, I'll come." His cheeks started to burn and he glanced over at the goldenrod comforter on the bed.

Lily smiled. "Great. I-mean, that's good. I'm starving." She cleared her throat at the sudden awkwardness. "Let's go down to the pub."

Severus snatched the key off the table and they left the room.


	9. Chapter 9: It's Never Too Late

_Thanks to **KraZiiePyrozHavemoreFun, Gyoro and Ururun, RawenclawBabe, ProfessorRadar,** **SaraMagician **and **Flame55** for the reviews for chapter eight._

_*Sorry about the last line-part of next chapter I started. Thought I erased that part before adding this chapter. My bad. :/_

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><p><strong>Chapter Nine: It's Never Too Late<strong>

"I think the telly is the dumbest muggle invention." Severus mumbled to himself as he lay on the bed, thumbing through the set with a remote control.

Lily stopped scratching out the letter she was penning. "It's not so bad. I used to enjoy some of the shows, especially when I didn't feel well. Mum would give me-" She sighed, her throat clenching. She signed her letter. "Okay. I finished my letter. I told him about the prophecy and explained that neither you nor I would be going to school this fall. I also said my house came under siege yesterday."

"Sounds fine. Just don't tell him where you are."

Lily rolled her eyes. "I'm not stupid, Severus." She pushed the chair back and got to her feet. "I'm going to go find an owl. I'll be back in a few minutes."

Severus glanced up at her. "You want me to come?"

Lily smiled at him briefly. "I appreciate the concern, but I'll be okay."

"The sun's almost set."

"The perfect time to spot an owl who can carry this letter to Dumbledore." She opened the door, taking the key with her. "I'll be back in a few minutes as I said."

Lily left the room and walked down the hall toward the lift. Soft music played from the pub beside of the hotel. She walked down the alley, looking at the trees for any sign of an owl. After almost five minutes, an owl swooped down, which alarmed her. It stuck out its foot.

"Carrier owls always know." She bent down and tied the letter to its leg. She handed it a bit of bread. "Thanks. Get this to Dumbledore straight away."

The owl swallowed the bread and flew off into the night. Stars glistened in the sky. A sense of peace came over her as she walked back to the hotel. The peace was short-lived as someone wolf-whistled.

"Look at that pretty little thing. She's all alone."

Lily turned to see three young men not much older than she was staring at her with hungry eyes like rapid wolves, her heart giving an easy jolt as she looked around and realized not one soul was nearby.

"Wasn't I just saying how there aren't any pretty girls around her? I stand corrected. This one looks like she needs some fun. How about we show her a good time?"

Lily backed up slowly toward the hotel, the door only a few feet away. They started down the alley. Lily turned and made a break for the door. She could hear them running after her. The back door was locked. Lily pulled out her wand and spoke a spell quietly. She thrust it open and shut it behind her as they gained speed. As she locked it back, she let out a heavy breath before going back to her room.

"Back already?"

"Yeah." She caught her breath.

Severus raised an eyebrow. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Next time, you're coming with me."

"What happened?" He sat up in the bed.

"Nothing, thankfully. Just some creepy boys thinking they're tough. They didn't touch me. I'm fine." Lily set the key on the table of the tiny kitchenette. "I think I'm going to take a shower and go to bed. I'm exhausted."

Severus watched Lily open her trunk and take out some clothes before heading to the shower. After almost fifteen minutes, Lily came out of the bathroom. Severus was closing the curtains as she came into the room.

"I think I'll write to Petunia tomorrow and the neighbours so they know I'm okay." Lily's mind suddenly went to James, who would still be on holiday until the 21st of the month. She could send him a letter now, but she did not want to ruin his break.

She crawled under the covers of the bed, the soft placid sheets cool against her skin. Severus crawled into the other side of the bed shortly after for a good night's rest.

Four Days Later

Lily moved a small ball up with her wand and let it bounce back down while she sat on the floor by the bed. Severus lay on the bed as he scratched notes in his seventh year potions book that he would never use now. Someone was playing loud music in the room next to theirs. Rain streaked the curved window and a car horn honked from the street by their hotel. Lily had sent letters to her neighbour and sister three days before.

"Four days here and three days all it's done is rain." Lily stated with a huff.

Severus set his quill down. "From what I saw on that telly, looks like home wouldn't be much better. It'll clear up."

Lily turned to him. "You can't tell me you aren't bored."

Severus shrugged. "Yeah, but unless you want to go out in this, we're kinda stuck in here." Severus paused from thoughts of potions. "Besides, it's not that bad."

Lily set her wand on the floor. "True. It could be worse."

"What? Being caught?"

Lily grinned. "No. I mean, yes, that'd be horrible, but I meant, I could be running alone. At least we can keep each other company."

Severus grinned for a brief second and then rolled his eyes. "I'm certain you'd chose many others to keep you company ahead of me. You just got stuck with me."

Lily let out a huff and shook her head.

Severus raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"You. You always think so negatively about yourself. Like your some horrible person to be around."

Severus scoffed. "You think so."

Lily turned back to him quickly with a frown. "What does that mean?"

Severus's obsidian eyes glared into her for a moment and he went back to scratching on his potions text. Lily let out another huff and started to play with the ball again.

_The following morning_

Lily opened her eyes slowly to birds chirping outside and the sun trying to pierce through the slight opening in the curtain. As she brushed her hair away from her face, she saw Severus beside of her, sleeping soundly. She was so close she could almost feel him breathing on her hand as she watched him sleep. His dark hair flowed over his face and temptation got the better of her to remove it. He stirred as she pushed it back out of his face.

She grinned to herself realizing how old Severus looked now. He was a scrawny, awkward little boy when they had met at the park years before, but he was not a child anymore. Even from fifth year when they had parted ways, he was still awkward and scrawny and not grown into himself, but he had matured physically since then. Severus did not have the timid, false bravado that she remembered. No, his face was not of the insecure boy anymore, but of a more stoic young man and his bravado was authentic when no one was around to bother him.

Her heart started to pound faster than she ever felt it pound in her chest as she realized what she was doing. He moved slightly, cuddling his pillow closer to cheek. Lily felt her breathing get laboured as her heart pounded wildly. Backing away from him, her foot got caught in the covers of the bed. As she loosened her foot from the tangle of sheets, she got too close to the edge and lost her balance, falling to the floor, taking some of the sheets with her.

Severus heard a crash and awoke with a start. The bed was empty beside of him. He leaned up. "Lily?"

Lily quickly pulled her gown down, her cheeks on fire for a moment. "I'm fine. Just tripped." She got to her feet. "Go back to sleep."

Severus scoffed and turned over onto his back before sitting up. "Yeah right. What's that noise? It sounds like a squeaky mockingbird."

Lily chuckled nervously and hurried to the window to open the curtains. "It's a seagull." She looked out the window. "He-or she is by our window."

Severus groaned. "Tell it to shut up. It's still early."

Lily craned her neck to look out and nearly jumped in surprise when someone spook beside of her.

"It looks like rain." Severus craned his neck to peer out.

Lily backed away from the window, refusing to look at him.

Severus glanced at her. "Are you okay?"

She nodded. "Fine-fine, I'm fine." In a scurry, she tossed open the trunk, knocking some socks over the side and onto the floor. She grabbed at her clothes before rushing into the bathroom.

Severus watched her run to the bathroom and shut the door, the shower started hardly a minute later. Severus made the bed, got out food items for breakfast and decided to get dressed for the day. After he had slipped on his trousers, Lily came out of the bathroom.

Lily saw Severus zipping his trousers and her cheeks burned a little. Severus saw her looking at him really strange as he buttoned his clothes. He knew she hadn't seen him put them on since she'd just come out of the bathroom, so what shocked her was a mystery.

"I-sorry-I tried to dress quickly." He grabbed for his shirt that was lying on the bed.

Lily shook her head, all the blood rushing to her face. "Fine-it's fine."

Severus hurried to put on his shirt. "I set out breakfast already so whenever you want to eat-"

Lily shook her head. "Uh, thanks, but I-I need to-I have to go-I need quiet-to think-the pier." She tossed her gown on the floor and slipped on her sneakers as she ran out the door, forgetting the key in the process.

Severus stood there a moment, his eyebrow and mouth twitching slightly in confusion. "Where?" Lily was already gone. Severus snatched his shoes and grabbed the key as he rushed after her. "Lily?" He looked down the hall and heard the door to the stairway shut. He sprinted down the hall and swept down the stairs after her. By the time he saw her again, she had her wand out and apparated before he could get a single word out.

"Lily!" He called out too late.

He stood in the empty alley, staring at the spot where Lily had apparated. After a few seconds, he shook off his momentary stillness and apparated to the pier.

It was empty this time of the day. The sun normally would be rising by now, but it the streetlamps were still on to brighten the street from the thick uniform gray clouds blocking the sun from any attempt to show it was now morning. He could see where he was going, though. It wasn't that dark, but he did fear it might start to rain any moment.

The thick wood was damp from splashes of the high tide, yesterday's rain and night moisture as he walked down the nearly barren pier, trying to not slip on the slick surface. A middle-aged couple jogged past him toward the entrance and there appeared to be someone at the very end of the pier. It was far away, but he could tell the blob of a person was definitely not Lily. Lily was nowhere to be found. Just as he started toward the first building on the pier, he spotted her, recognizing those deep red locks from anywhere.

Severus approached slowly, but stopped short as he reached the empty concession building. She straddled a post with her legs dangling over the side of the pier. Her body racked with sobs and he listened uneasily.

"This wasn't supposed to happen to me. I just wanted to help him. What was I supposed to do? Leave him like that? I couldn't do it. I wouldn't do that. I just wanted to save him, to help him. It's not supposed to be like this. We're not-we can't-I didn't-but I want-I don't even know anymore."

Lily sniffed and cracked out a pitiful sounding sob. "Why did you always have to be right? Tell me what to do now. Are we supposed to stay like this? How can we when I feel like this? I just can't..." Her voice cracked. "I can't do this. I can't stay with Severus."

Severus's ears perked up at that and his heart dropped into his empty stomach.

"How can I stay with him like this? It's not fair to him. It'll only do more harm than good. I can't even look at him anymore without..." She glanced around the empty pier as if someone would hear her that shouldn't. "Without thinking wrong things."

Severus felt his heart move out of his stomach and leaned in closer, his hearts thumping so wildly he was afraid she'd hear it.

"I don't want to like him. I thought we were just friends. We were, but I don't feel that way anymore. I don't-I never planned on-never wanted to have these thoughts for him. They're so wrong, but I like them and I don't want to like them. I want to hate them." She gripped the poles closest to her and leaned against them, looking down as the sea slammed against the poles holding the pier up. "But I don't. I know how I feel and it's not right for us in this situation. It's just not fair to him. I think-maybe we should-maybe we need to go our separate ways."

His heart dropped into his stomach again with a jolt and it took all his willpower to not jump out and stop those thoughts right now. As he listened to her debate with herself what to do next, Severus gathered up all the courage and confidence that he could muster and forced himself to move away from the building and toward her.

Two steps forward and she did not notice him. After a moment of silence with just her soft sobs, he cleared his throat. She did not move. His mouth twitched slightly and he cleared his throat louder. "Lily?"

She jumped, nearly banging her head against the pier's ledge as she hurried to her feet. "Sev?"

Her voice mixed with confusion and she twitched her mouth once into what was nearly a smile before she forced it to stop and her eyes got wide and breathing more laboured. She turned away, hurrying to wipe away any traces of emotion from her face. "Um, how long have you been here?"

Severus paused and looked over the pier at the water a moment before turning back to look at her red locks flowing slightly over her shoulders. "A few minutes. I was afraid to disturb you."

Lily turned to him quickly with her mouth slightly gaped. "A few-a few minutes? Were you listening to me?"

Severus grimaced. "Not on purpose. I wasn't eavesdropping. I was worried about you-afraid you were ill or something-didn't want to bother you. You seemed upset so-"

Her cheeks burned until they were beet red. "What-what all did you hear?"

Severus was on the verge of speech and struggled to get the words out. "Not what you wanted me to hear, but Lily-I-there's something-I need to-I have something to tell you."

Lily did not seem to hear anything past the word "hear", the rest of her minus her cheeks turned ghostly pale and she stepped back, her eyes wide with horror.

"Lily, listen-please. I have to tell you..."

Her lip trembled and eyes glossed over with tears which blurred the pier and Severus from her vision. She took off in a burst, racing down the pier, causing a couple seagulls, which were pecking at half of a mushy pretzel, to fly away quickly with loud squawking.

Lily took off so fast that Severus was left standing there in confusion for a moment before running off after her. When he caught up to her, she was standing by a streetlamp that was flickering off for the day though the gray skies had not disappeared.

"Does it bother you that much?" Severus snapped.

Lily jumped and turned to him, her face turning beet red again before she raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Does it really bother you that much?"

Lily shrugged, looking away. "I don't-what are you talking about?"

Severus narrowed his eyes. "Me. I bother you."

She shook her head quickly. "No, no, you don't-you really don't." She sighed to herself and mumbled to herself. "That's the problem."

"Liking me is a problem?" His eyes were almost slits.

"No, of-of course not."

"Yes, it is. You can't stand it. You like me and you hate that. I'm not stupid, Lily. I know you can do much better than some loser like me."

Lily's eyes were wide and mouth gaped, her brain and tongue tied from momentary shock. "No-"

"You're right. Maybe we should go our separate ways." The words were bitter on his tongue and he turned on his heel and started to walk off the pier.

"Sev, wait."

He turned to her. "I'll remove my things from your luggage and leave. You can ask _Potter_ to join you. He'd be happy to oblige and you'd be far happier as well. Just tell him you're a target and need him. Bet he'll jump right on that." He walked to the street and turned before stepping onto it. "I always cared about you-loved you, but you clearly never felt the same. Even when you start to like me how I like you, you panic and cry. Bet you wouldn't if it were _Potter_." The name was like venom on his tongue.

Lily just stood there, watching him leave. She wanted to say something, anything to stop him, but her brain and mouth would not work in sync enough to make any words emerge. As he apparated, her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach and shattered into pieces. Her lip trembled and she bit it so hard to make it stop that it turned almost white from lack of circulation. She shook herself out of it within a minute or two as something wet hit her hand and she looked up at the dreary sky to see rain drops falling. She started to walk toward the hotel, not even trying to apparate, letting the rain hit her.

Severus entered the hotel room and sighed. He kicked the door shut so hard, he thought he might have broken it, but the sturdy solid oak door didn't even have a dent in it. Still, he hoped there wouldn't be any complaints from the neighbours about doors slamming. He stood in the room for a moment, glancing around.

"I have some money, a little. I can get by, go somewhere, get a job. _Potter_ won't let anything happen to her if he actually cares about her, right? She'll be much happier with _him_ than with me. I just bother her." He mumbled aloud and kicked off his shoes, which tumbled into the tiled kitchen.

Severus went into the bathroom to shower. He scrubbed his hair more viciously than necessary. When he got out of the shower, the room was still empty. As he started to wonder if he ought to go make sure she was safe, the door opened.

Lily's eyes were red and puffy, her soaked clothes stuck against her skin and her hair dripped continuously.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "What happened to you?"

Lily took off her water-logged shoes, which squeaked and sloshed as she tossed them aside.

"Why would you walk in the rain? Have you gone mad?" Severus snapped, his voice rising a little.

She looked at him. "You're right."

He could barely hear her, but he heard a soft "I'm sorry" come out of her. He watched her walk into the bathroom, completely taken aback by her apology.

She came back out with a dry towel and went over to her trunk. She took out a clean, dry shirt and trousers.

"What do you mean, you're sorry?"

Lily held the dry clothes to her. "Just that-I'm sorry. You're right. I was wrong." She went into the bathroom to change, buying time to gather up the courage to talk to him again.

Severus saw Lily emerge from the bathroom in her dry pale pink shirt and denim trousers with her hair bunched in a towel. All the makeup she'd put on earlier was now gone.

"Did you mean it?"

Severus raised an eyebrow as he sat on the bed stacking the new clothes he'd bought recently on it, "What?"

"What you said earlier-when we were at the pier-did you mean it?" Her eyes glanced curiously at him.

"About what?"

Lily's tongue and throat suddenly become parched and he watched her struggle on the verge of speech. "That-I-you-that you-" She looked up from his smoky gray shirt into his face. "Do like-I mean, do you like-love me-like that?"

Severus's cheeks flushed red and he turned his gaze away from hers. Gathering the clothes into a bag, he cleared his throat.

"Sev?"

He cleared his throat again and turned to her. "Yes, but it doesn't matter. Don't worry about me. Ask _Potter_ to come stay with you-or better yet, send him a quick note to meet you somewhere and go to another location you'll stay safe." He moved past her in the living space and headed for the door.

"It upsets you too." She mumbled.

Severus turned when he reached the kitchenette by the door. "You liking me back the way I wish you always would? You think that upsets me?"

"Then why are you running?" She snapped.

He met her harsh gaze with one of his own. "Running?" Anger flashed across his eyes. "I'm running? You're the one who wanted to separate. I bother you-"

"You don't bother me!" Her voice edged.

"Oh, yeah? Then why did you run to the pier to cry over it? Why are so upset?"

"Because I didn't want to hurt you!" She was yelling now.

Despite being a little surprise at that, Severus narrowed his eyes into slits. "How would it hurt me?"

"Because I liked you! It would ruin everything-our friendship and I didn't-I don't want that to go away again." Her voice was almost a mumble by the end. She glared at him. "But you know what-you want to go-then go! Go! I can handle myself!"

"That's stupid to be alone!"

Lily's eyes were now slits. "That so, huh? Then why are you going alone, huh? Huh? You're running away alone, are you not? You aren't any safer!"

"I can handle myself just fine!"

"So can I!"

"You're the one they're after!"

"They're after you too! You know what they're capable of! You know and you-you-you idiot think you're safer alone!"

"I'll be just fine!"

"So will I!"

Severus and Lily glared daggers toward one another for a moment before their gaze became uncomfortable. He watched her expression soften.

"You don't have to go." She whispered.

Severus's cold expression softened as well. "You want me to though."

Lily shook her head. "No, but, you probably want to-what with the weird-ish-awkwardness now."

"I don't feel awkward. I just figure you'd rather have Potter here."

"Why would you think that?"

"I know you like him."

"Not really. Not like I like...you."

The room become so still that only soft murmurs of a telly in the next room and rain hitting the roof tiles could be heard.

"If it doesn't bother you, you don't have to leave."

Severus glanced up and into her almost emerald-green eyes. "Why would having the woman I've fallen for also fall for me bother me?" He paused for a second to make sure he said that right and shrugged. "Would it bother you?"

Lily gave him a genuine smile. "No." She sighed. "So, what does this mean?"

Severus shrugged. "Whatever you want it to mean."


End file.
